Guatemala – January 2024

Guatemala January 2024

These are photographs that I took in the center of Guatemala City in January, 2024. The first seven are outside the Ministerio Publico (Public Ministry or Department of Justice), where people were protesting and camped out for three months because the corrupt Attorney General and others in the government were trying to block the president-elect, Bernardo Arévalo, from taking office. Arévalo is a progressive, anti-corruption candidate who won the second round of elections on August 20, 2023. The rest of the photographs were taken on 14 January, 2024, in and around the Central Park, the day that Bernardo Arévalo was to take office as the new president of Guatemala, but there was a last minute effort by corrupt members of congress to block him from taking office, so it was not until after 1 AM the next day that Arévalo finally took possession of the new government.

I’m now (July 2024) beginning work on a new Guatemala book that will include some or most of these photographs and many other color photographs that I have taken there since 1993. I will donate half or more of the proceeds from sales to one or two NGOs in Guatemala that work for justice, human rights and historical memory, in solidarity!