COURAGE IN DARK TIMES

Guatemala was going through the “dark times,” the violent years between the 1950s and 1980s, when the military ruled the country. People lived in constant fear for their lives. Unidentified vehicles with unknown masked passengers kidnapped males off the streets, while the police patrol nearby looked the other way. Bodies pulled out from the Motagua River daily, riddled with bullets, some blindfolded and showed signs of unspeakable gruesome torture.

Courage is speaking out when the military government took away people’s basic rights, cancelled elections, destroyed homes and property, and killed more than 200,000 people — just to stay in power.

Courage is wanting the world to know about the violence of the military, political corruption, injustices against indigenous people, and the plight of the poor.

Courage is writing what others didn’t dare write over the course of the 36-year-long civil war.
— 342 journalists murdered, 126 illegally arrested, kidnapped and disappeared without a trace.