Mesa Pública

We’ll be going back in time to 2009 when our mobile-based citizen journalism experiment in Guatemala was launched – when the clock started ticking for our idea and we entered a changing information ecosystem in Central America.  We’ll be asking ourselves: What did we do right? Where did we go wrong? What would we change if we could go back in time? Were we, just like Doc, ahead of our time?

Desde que el presidente Barack Obama describió el número de menores que viajan solos y que cruzan la frontera entre Estados Unidos y México como una "situación de emergencia humanitaria" el debate sobre los niños migrantes continua. Nuestro programa está dedicada a tener una conversación sobre las causas y las maneras de mejor enfrentar esta situación.Invitados:Carol Girón es maestra de Derechos Humanos en la Universidad Rafael Landívar de Guatemala. Es fundadora del Instituto CentroAmericano de Estudios Sociales y Desarrollo e investigadora en dicha institución. Participó como investigadora en “Latinos en Florida. Religión vivida, espacio y poder" y “Migración remesas y desarrollo" con la Universidad de Emory en Atlanta, Georgia desde 2009.Juan José Hurtado Paz y Paz es Coordinador Técnico en Asociación Pop No’j; la organización se enfoque en fortaleciendo las identidades culturales como fuerza para la construcción de una vida digna. Por cuatro años le ha dado seguimiento al fenómeno de niñez migrante no aco

The 2009 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor stated that Guatemala was the sixth highest in the world and fourth in Latin America for the Rate of Early Entrepreneurship. Today you'll hear three entrepreneurs talk about their journeys into entrepreneurship and their current work in Guatemala.Special Guests:Luis Aguilar is an Ashoka fellow and social entrepreneur who founded Bakabs. Bakabs is a network of small and medium tourism enterprises focusing on rural areas of Guatemala. Hotels, restaurants, transport and entertainment venues work together with artists and artisans creating economic, social and cultural development in the Guatemalan countryside.Mark Jacobson worked in the hospitality industry and then became a business advisor and investor in several Central American firms. He has a BS from Cornell University.  Four years ago, he co-founded Pomona Impact and now works to grow an impact investment 'ecosystem' that will provide financial and technical support to early stage impact businesses in Meso America.

In 2013 a Guatemalan court convicted former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt of overseeing acts of genocide against Guatemala’s Ixil Mayan population from 1982 to 1983. The verdict was based on the testimony of 95 witnesses from the Ixil area.  Some Ixils and K’iche’s object to the verdict because they credit Ríos Montt with saving their lives. Was Ríos Montt’s “amnesty” for guerrilla supporters a significant element of what happened in the Ixil area?  Should it have played a greater role in the trial?  Is “genocide” the best description of what happened? Guests on the show:David Stoll is an anthropologist who has been working with the people of northern Quiché since the 1980s.  Following the verdict against Ríos Montt, Stoll interviewed Ixils, K’iche’s and Ladinos in Nebaj.  The weekly magazine Contrapoder has just published his analysis of what Nebajenses told him, as well as of the testimony of the trial witnesses.  His most recent book is El Norte or Bust! How Migration Fever and Microcredit Produced a Financia

Photos: Ben Parker On May 10, 2013 Ríos Montt was found guilty of overseeing acts of genocide and war crimes against Guatemala’s Ixil Mayan population in 1982 and 1983. The landmark trial marked the first time a former head of state had been tried for genocide by his country's own judicial system, and was considered a key step in addressing impunity for crimes of the past. The guilty verdict was annulled 10 days later by the Constitutional Court on questionable legal grounds. Last week the Constitutional Court issued a ruling on Oct. 22 asking lower courts to reconsider Rios Montt’s right to protection under a defunct 1986 amnesty law. Is the Guatemalan Constitutional Court's decision impeding justice in Guatemala? What is the longer-term impact of this decision? Is it furthering impunity and social polarization in the country and a much needed reckoning with its past?Guests on our show:Jo-Marie Burt teaches political science at George Mason University, where she is also director of Latin American Studies and