We are driving towards the border between Guatemala and El Salvador. Although my speed is fairly high, a pick-up truck overtakes us impatiently. A tall and strong fair-skinned man is standing in the back, holding something shiny in his right hand: a huge gun. Stories from guidebooks about carjackers in Central America flash in my head: they intercept cars, rob the occupants from their belongings, and sometimes steal their car as well. Normally no one gets hurt although once in a while things get ugly, especially if the victims try to resist. We have no car insurance (I didn’t find a way to buy coverage in Guatemala for a foreign car). I silently pray that the truck is not waiting for us down the road in an isolated spot.
It isn’t.
Maybe the thick layer of dirt on our SUV camouflaged it well. Maybe the thugs have such bad eyesight they didn’t notice our California plates. Maybe they avoid robbing foreigners on Sundays because that’s bad karma. I will never know for sure what kept us out of harm’s way, but I feel like burning a candle for my guardian angel.
And then I start thinking about the gun. Made in the U.S.; sold in a state with weak arms control laws; paid for by drug money; smuggled into Mexico then all the way to Guatemala. How many innocents did it kill? How many lives did it threaten? How many people participated in that long chain of death? The staff from the manufacturing company, the dealer who sold the gun, the middleman who bought it, the other middleman who smuggled it… but also the congressman who supports weak gun laws, the lobbyist who donated to the congressman’s campaign, the NRA member whose money goes straight to the lobby, the American pothead who funds the drug cartels and gun trafficking every time he smokes a joint… The list goes on an on. Everyone thinks they are innocent because they are only one part of the chain. And yet everyone is guilty of not doing anything to break it.
I try to picture the same man in the back of the same pick-up truck armed with a baseball bat or even a machete: it wouldn’t be near as scary. But as long as the thug terrorizes people in Guatemala, away from U.S. soil, who really cares about him or his gun?
Cedric, 10/01/2011
Hello,
Regarding your encounter with the “scary” gun, you do seem to assume many things. First you must have Super Man vision how did you see it was an American made gun, or does it just fit your agenda that set up ? Have you ever taken the time to see how one in the USA goes through a background check to purchase a firearm, and the restrictions . I don’t think you have , as you quite well said weak gun laws. I’m sure because Guatemala the shinning example to the Americas has gun laws. No they don’t , and if they do, they must be weaker than traffic law enforcement as you said you were speeding, then this other person obviously took you over in speed. Then you finish it off with this ridiculous chain of conjecture of how this person obtained his gun, and along the way calling everyone a murderer. Wow, your abilities of conjecture are amazing. Don’t twist the actions of a deranged Guetemalan man as the fault of Americans. Just as you couldn’t find car insurance, who is at fault there? Oh could it be the American insurance company that doesn’t insure you, or perhaps was it embassy that denied American insurance through their Congress? No, because what I just typed is just as absurd as you connect the dots logic.
Thanks for reading my blog.
LoL, makes perfect sense now, work in San Francisco, and living a pretty above average income level. I like your blog, thinly veiled world “views”, are just lots of articulate complaining. Hahah