Our November Author: Francisco Goldman

For a little biographical information on our November author, Francisco Goldman, (The Art of Political Murder: Who Killed the Bishop?) there's this Wikipedia entry. This CUNY lecture by the author recaps his journey and this Pen World Voices panel event includes Goldman with the bonus of other prospective Rights Readers authors.

The Nation, 'The Novelist and the Murderers', covers the effect of the book's publication on Guatemala and WNYC follows up with an interview on the same topic:



Global Voices Online records the thoughts of Guatemalans ten years after the murder: Remembering Bishop Gerardi and His Report “Never Again!” Finally, for current human rights concerns and actions: AIUSA's Guatemala page.

New Amnesty-USA Blog

Amnesty International - USA has combined its blogs into one comprehensive blog called Human Rights Now. Apropos of our Rights Readers selection this month, The Art of Political Murder: Who Killed the Bishop, they have a post on Guatemala referencing the Holiday Card Action for the Guatemalan Foundation of Forensic Anthropology. The blog should be a great way to keep up with the latest news from AI. Check it out!

For November: The Art of Political Murder

For November, we have selected Francisco Goldman's The Art of Political Murder: Who Killed the Bishop

Bishop Juan Gerardi, Guatemala’s leading human rights activist, was bludgeoned to death in his garage on a Sunday night in 1998, two days after the presentation of a groundbreaking church-sponsored report implicating the military in the murders and disappearances of some two hundred thousand civilians. Realizing that it could not rely on police investigators or the legal system to solve the murder, the church formed its own investigative team, a group of secular young men in their twenties who called themselves Los Intocables (the Untouchables). Known in Guatemala as “The Crime of the Century,” the Bishop Gerardi murder case, with its unexpectedly outlandish scenarios and sensational developments, confounded observers and generated extraordinary controversy. In his first nonfiction book, acclaimed novelist Francisco Goldman has spoken to witnesses no other reporter has reached, and observed firsthand some of the most crucial developments in the case. Now he has produced The Art of Political Murder, a tense and astonishing true detective story that opens a window on the new Latin American reality of mara youth gangs and organized crime, and tells the story of a remarkable group of engaging, courageous young people, and of their remarkable fight for justice.

Los Angeles Event: Guatemala Femicide Conference

We featured this recommended action for a House resolution condemning the brutal murders of women in girls in Guatemala in a recent issue of our newsletter,

The majority of women killed in the past few years in Guatemala lived in urban areas of the country and were 18-30 years old. Many were abducted in broad daylight in front of witnesses. Despite the lack of detailed forensic information, significant evidence suggest that sexual violence, particularly rape, characterizes many of the killings. The brutality of the killings, with sexual violence and mutilation, bear many of the hallmarks of the terrible atrocities committed during the civil conflict. These atrocities have gone unpunished, and reveal that extreme sexual violence and discrimination remain prevalent in Guatemalan society.

An opportunity to learn more is coming up on March 21 and 22 at Loyola Marymount University with a conference that promises,

...to create a safe space to lecture and debate the femicide, its theories, the culture of violence behind this issue, and the actions to take in order to investigate, prevent and stop the violent murders of women in this country

More info here.

For a little artistic inspiration for your actions, check out this post.

Guatemala Series

Loyal Readers may be interested in the NPR series, Unearthing the Future, completed this week focusing on the intersection of human rights and technology in Guatemala. One of the featured stories focuses on the use of forensic anthropology in human rights investigations, a subject familiar to our Readers who read Clea Koff's Bone Woman, and highlights the work of the Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala. A few of you may recall taking action on behalf of members of the Foundation who received death threats (see Guatemala: Human rights defenders at risk). The series page has plenty of slideshows and links even if you're not inclined to take in the audio. Then visit here to take action on behalf of an Italian environmentalist working with indigenous peoples in Guatemala who has been the recipient of threats for his work.

Follow-up on the "Denounce Torture" Event

For those unable to attend our recent event supporting Amnesty International's Denounce Torture campaign and for those who want to pursue some of the issues presented further, here are some literary connections of note from the event:

One of the speakers, Jennifer Harbury, known in human rights circles for taking on the Guatemalan army and CIA in seeking answers for her husband's death, (documented in Searching for Everardo,) has written a new book, Truth, Torture and the American Way, connecting the dots with regards to torture and United States foreign policy from Vietnam to Central America to Iraq and the War on Terror.

The other non-Amnesty speaker, Maria LaHood, presented the legal actions her organization, The Center for Constitutional Rights, is using to seek justice for prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. Poking around their website, I found that one of their non-legal projects is to promote public awareness of the plight of Guantanamo prisoners through public readings of a play, Guantánamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom. The play is by Victoria Brittain and Gillian Slovo and is derived from spoken evidence and letters from British detainees to their families. More information on staging a reading and the script can be found here. Also very much worth noting is CCR's Wiwa Initiative, a legal action against Royal Dutch Shell for their part in the death of Ken Saro-Wiwa.