Writer, lecturer and journalist Ana Maria Rodas is angry. Having worked through the dangerous and stifling years of the Guatemalan civil war she expects more from her media colleagues.
“Now we have the right to speak, but most of the newspapers have become ‘yellow’. They write a lot about murders, violence and scandals in the government, but we do not hear about the scandals in private enterprise,” says Ana Maria Rodas. She writes a couple of columns, but wants to start her own blog.
“I still have a lot to say. There is too much light stuff and violence is not the only issue in this country. If we were able to survive the war days, we should be able to do more,” she says.
There are a number of issues she thinks do not get the attention they need:
* Gender issues.
* The poverty gap – more than half the Guatemalan population lives under the poverty line.
* The lives of rural people.
“In the same way as we were careful to write about politics during the war, newspapers are now reluctant to write about drugdealers,” Rodas maintains.
During the 36 year war close friends were killed or disappeared.
“It was awful. We had to be aware the whole time of the dangers of publishing certain articles.”
This year it is ten year since the peace accords brought a formal end to the armed conflict. The breeze of democracy started blowing in the mid-80s.
By Jan Speed
Guatemala
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