Public Out Cry

I am saddened by recent events on the Rio Dulce of late. The regular dinghy and outboard motor thefts are the norm, but lately we have had murders and boardings, local villages searched, suspects arrested and the list goes on.

The forums are full of vigilantly justice when it is the gringos being killed, but not so much when a Guatemalan is murdered. No outrage at the “Cleansing in Seja”. I am confused when told by a marina owner that Raul (the Guatemalan agent when you check-in to the country) had warned incoming boats that they should NOT anchor on the river at this time and gave them the name of a marina that they could reach before dark and have security. They chose to anchor and they were boarded.

I believe that we all have the right to our own opinions. Everyone has one. But I am dismayed that a friend of mine has received a death threat via a local forum. In my estimation she was attempting to have people look at another side. COULD there have been a drug element. Events following the murder did have that flavor. She did say that because Dan smoked pot that he was a drug abuser. She did say that it is illegal to have in your possession pot in the USA and in Guatemala. I know that the enforcement of the Drug laws is different in different jurisdictions. She did NOT say that he was murdered because he smoked a joint in New York or that he was murdered because he may have or may have not purchased pot here in Guatemala.

What concerns me most is that when a Guatemalan is murdered there is no out cry in the gringo community. Most of us are not even aware. When a death threat is made on a forum against a gringo there is NO OUT CRY! The forum, however, was full of cries for lynchings and local forms of justice, such as burning people alive etc.

The cruising community on the river is divided. This is not a new thing. It is just in our faces now. The cruising community as I see it is divided into categories.

1. Cruisers who live on their boats year round and this is a hurricane hole.

2. Cruisers who live on their boats part of the year. Leave the boat for hurricane season.

3. Cruisers who may or may not continue to live on their boat, but are active in the local community. Some marry or live with Guatemalans.

4. Cruiser Missionaries that may or may not live on their boats and I am not sure of their impact.

5. Cruisers who live here year round and no longer take their boats out if they still have them until they have to because the law states that every 2 years the boat must leave the country. You can get around this by paying a bribe.

6. Cruisers who are here for the first time.

7. Cruisers who come back season after season.
We are divided by social, financial, political, geographical, and religious differences.


Bottom line…As long as I agree with you then everything is cool. If I ask you to look at something differently then I become a social pariah. I would hope that we could have dialogue, even heated dialogue, but at the end of the day and we are facing ourselves in the mirror I want to know that I did the best I could.

I may not agree with you and what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.