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Todd Bauer

Letter from Guatemala

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2000 Fall
I've known Todd Bauer for five years, since our days gardening together at Aprovecho Research Center outside Cottage Grove, Oregon. I have always admired his dedication to his path of self-education, truth-seeking, and service to others. Most recently, that path has taken him to Guatemala as a human rights accompanier. Excerpts from a recent (April 2, 2000) email tell a story of real-world political relationships that mere journalistic reporting or analysis would be hard-pressed to convey.--Ed.

 

Hola Friends and Family,

In November and December I traveled to Guatemala and studied Spanish in the Quetzaltenago, which is in highlands, a beautiful area. There were frosts at night, not what I expected when traveling to a tropical country. I spent the New Year there, then returned to the US to attend a week-long training session in Human Rights Accompaniment through the Guatemalan Accompaniment Project, GAP. GAP is a program that was started after the peace accords were signed to end the war in Guatemala and the refugees were returning to Guatemala from several states in southern Mexico. There was concern the military was going to seek retribution for the refugees' escape, so they asked the international community for people to accompany them on their journey back home.


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