While traffic stood at a standstill, the Tupamaros on motorcycles began their assault —
couching it as a “democratic protest”. Highly trained in such urban protest-assault tactics,
typically one member acts as a news media representative, videotaping the scene in case they are
able to provoke American drivers into over-reacting. In unison, some of the others begin shouting
pre-arranged “chants” and protest slogans, some wield banners, but almost all begin launching
stones, bricks, eggs, tomatoes, whatever they can muster at the Ambassador’s car.
Although alarming, such actions are typical of a low intensity conflict designed to send a
message to the U.S. officials. The Tupas could have just as easily opened fire with armor piecing
ammunition using fully automatic weapons. But they did not. Rather, they repeatedly, over time,
waged these kind of street protest attacks against the embassy officials.
leah williams on 17 Nov 09This author of this article is a "travel writing" contest runner-up. This author went into Guatemala and wrote about their experiences there. They wrote this article with a series of pictures and personal stories sharing the life of Guatemala and the author's interactions with the lives of the people after the war. I thought this was an interesting resource because it not only had visuals of the idea of "life after war," but also because it shared a more personal look (instead of a reporter's interpretation).
