Spoiler alert: The second episode of Matt and Ben’s Bernays series examines how the “Father of Public Relations” helped convince the American public to support an invasion of Guatemala. At the time, Guatemala was what is often referred to as a banana republic — it’s obviously an insult, but what exactly is a banana republic? Why do so many people get the definition wrong?
In the summer of 1954 the United States toppled the government of Guatemala. Their frontline was a ragtag of some 200 exiles. Their real strength was in the air, and on the airwaves. In a war of nerves the elected government of Jacobo Arbenz fell a mere ten days after the war began.
Arbenz’s fatal mistake was expropriating land from the American United Fruit Company, and distributing it to landless peasants. For this he was branded a communist, a Soviet agent, and a dangerous enemy to American national security.
It was the CIA’s most triumphant covert operation, but it was also the beginning of the end. The CIA-backed coup was the precursor to the Bay of Pigs fiasco, and threw Guatemala into a downward spiral of government-sponsored terror and mass murder. . . Read Complete Report
Originally discovered in the 1950’s, a large carved stone head has been found again deep in the jungles of Guatemala. The stone head was rumored to have been destroyed several decades ago but a good number of eye witnesses have recently come forward claiming they have seen and know where the object is located. A team of archaeologists and scientists from several Guatemalan Universities are planning on an expedition to confirm these reports and plan on announcing their findings once they return.. . . Read Complete Report
ScienceDaily (Oct. 3, 2012) — Archaeologists in Guatemala have discovered the tomb of Lady K’abel, a seventh-century Maya Holy Snake Lord considered one of the great queens of Classic Maya civilization.
The tomb was discovered during excavations of the royal Maya city of El Perú-Waka’ in northwestern Petén, Guatemala, by a team of archaeologists led by Washington University in St. Louis’ David Freidel, co-director of the expedition. . . . Read Complete Report
WUSTL archaeologist David Freidel, PhD, professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences, was part of a team that discovered the tomb of Lady K’abel, a seventh-century Maya Holy Snake Lord considered one of great queens of Classic Maya civilization. . . . Text posted with video at youtube
To me it seems totally insane to continue sending United States forces to other countries to fight in the so-called Drug War. A “war” that has gone on for 40 years with no end in sight. Actually we have more drugs, easily available than we did when this so-called war started. Why can’t our government see that this is a educational and medical problem rather than a military one. . . EDITOR
By ROMINA RUIZ-GOIRIENA and MARTHA MENDOZA 08/29/12 08:28 PM ET
GUATEMALA CITY — A team of 200 U.S. Marines began patrolling Guatemala’s western coast this week in an unprecedented operation to beat drug traffickers in the Central America region, a U.S. military spokesman said Wednesday.
The Marines are deployed as part of Operation Martillo, a broader effort started last Jan. 15 to stop drug trafficking along the Central American coast. Focused exclusively on drug dealers in airplanes or boats, the U.S.-led operation involves troops or law enforcement agents from Belize, Britain, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, France, Guatemala, Honduras, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Panama and Spain. . . . Read Complete Report
Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina has told Al Jazeera that the US-led regional war against drug trafficking is being lost and requires a change in strategy. . . Text posted with video to youtube
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — A team of archaeologists led by Brown University’s Stephen Houston has uncovered a pyramid, part of the Maya archaeological site at El Zotz, Guatemala. The ornately decorated structure is topped by a temple covered in a series of masks depicting different phases of the sun, as well as deeply modeled and vibrantly painted stucco throughout.
The team began uncovering the temple, called the Temple of the Night Sun, in 2009. Dating to about 350 to 400 A.D., the temple sits just behind the previously discovered royal tomb, atop the Diablo Pyramid. The structure was likely built after the tomb to venerate the leader buried there.
Houston says that through this find, much of it pristinely preserved, researchers are gaining a significant amount of new information about the Maya civilization. . . . Read Complete Report
A mask-nificent discovery CREDIT: Video credit: Mike Cohea/Brown University
