Yesterday during my Spanish lesson, the conversation with my maestra Clarita turned to local government corruption in the towns around Lago Atitlan. Apparently, the previous mayor of San Pedro went to prison a few years ago for siphoning off public funding, and there is currently a scandal in the neighbouring pueblo San Juan, as some political opponents have gone public with some documented evidence that the current 'acalde' in San Juan has been skimming off money from the town budget.
According to Clarita, the crooked mayor in San Juan has a lovely big house with all the latest mod cons including a designer kitchen imported from Switzerland, and he has even been able to afford to send his daughter to study in Canada, something few Guatemaltecos (and certainly not rural town officials) would be able to afford in a month of Domingos.
However as I listened further to my Spanish teacher, I started to think to myself that the pilfering mayor in San Juan is perhaps not all that bad after all, as apparently the town of San Juan was a real crime-ridden shithole a few years ago, and since he became the mayor, the town has seen something of a transformation into a pueblo that Guatemaltecos want to live in, with regular refuse collection (something San Pedro does not have) and the opportunity for all children to go to school and onto further education, regardless of their families financial situation.
As I have mentioned previously, a child was killed during a landslide in San Pedro a month ago during Hurrican Agatha, and her body was never found. In the days after the tragedy, the distraught family went to the mayor in San Pedro to plead for some financial help from the town coffers to rent a tractor to help search for their daughters body so they couyld give her a proper burial. According to Clarita, the mayor of San Pedro turned them away point blank with some insensitive excuses. As a last resort, the grieving family went to nearby San Juan to beg to the mayor there if he could help, even though they were not even his constituents. Within a few hours, the crooked mayor of San Juan had provided the money (approx GBP 3000) to rent a tractor for 48 hours to help search for the dead child in San Pedro.
Unfortunately the search effort with the rented tractor was ultimately unsuccessful, and the family then went back to the alcalde in San Pedro to ask him for a sniffer dog to help look for their child. Again, the Mayor of their town turned them away, and again, the family made the journey to neighbouring San Juan to ask the mayor their if he could help him. Again, within hours, the crooked mayor of San Juan had organised for a specialised sniffer dog from Argentina to be flown up to Guatemala to help search for the missing childs body, so her grieving family could put her to rest and start to get on with their lives.
My Spanish teacher told me that the whole epison has turned the entire population of San Pedro against their local alcalde, and that he now has absolutely no hope of being relected at the end of his current mayoral term, whilst everbody thinks the corrupt mayor of San Juan is the best thing since sliced bread for stepping in to help the family in San Pedro find their daughter, even if he does have a swiss kitchen that he bought with money from San Juans public coffers.
The moral of this story is simple for any UK politicians that happen to be reading my blog: If you want to get re-elected for another term, expense your chandeliers, fountains and mortgage repayments on your pied-à-terre near Westminster that you do not even life in to the British taxpayer AFTER you´ve sorted out our countries economic crisis.
As I have mentioned previously, a child was killed during a landslide in San Pedro a month ago during Hurrican Agatha, and her body was never found. In the days after the tragedy, the distraught family went to the mayor in San Pedro to plead for some financial help from the town coffers to rent a tractor to help search for their daughters body so they couyld give her a proper burial. According to Clarita, the mayor of San Pedro turned them away point blank with some insensitive excuses. As a last resort, the grieving family went to nearby San Juan to beg to the mayor there if he could help, even though they were not even his constituents. Within a few hours, the crooked mayor of San Juan had provided the money (approx GBP 3000) to rent a tractor for 48 hours to help search for the dead child in San Pedro.
Unfortunately the search effort with the rented tractor was ultimately unsuccessful, and the family then went back to the alcalde in San Pedro to ask him for a sniffer dog to help look for their child. Again, the Mayor of their town turned them away, and again, the family made the journey to neighbouring San Juan to ask the mayor their if he could help him. Again, within hours, the crooked mayor of San Juan had organised for a specialised sniffer dog from Argentina to be flown up to Guatemala to help search for the missing childs body, so her grieving family could put her to rest and start to get on with their lives.
My Spanish teacher told me that the whole epison has turned the entire population of San Pedro against their local alcalde, and that he now has absolutely no hope of being relected at the end of his current mayoral term, whilst everbody thinks the corrupt mayor of San Juan is the best thing since sliced bread for stepping in to help the family in San Pedro find their daughter, even if he does have a swiss kitchen that he bought with money from San Juans public coffers.
The moral of this story is simple for any UK politicians that happen to be reading my blog: If you want to get re-elected for another term, expense your chandeliers, fountains and mortgage repayments on your pied-à-terre near Westminster that you do not even life in to the British taxpayer AFTER you´ve sorted out our countries economic crisis.
