A Search for Justice in ‘Finding Oscar’

Jordan Riefe / Truthdig Apr 15, 2017 The documentary traces the story of a 1982 massacre of a Guatemalan village to a trial three decades later, with human rights advocates as the heroes. Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )

Robert Scheer Meets Blase Bonpane, a Priest Who Defied the Catholic Church

BLANK Dec 2, 2016 The priest and author of the new book “The Nicene Heresy: Christendom and War, Reverence and Critique” tells Truthdig's editor in chief about his career working for peace in Central America and his conflicted relationship with his church. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson Takes High School Detention to a New Level

By Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan May 26, 2016 In January, Wildin Acosta left his home to go to school but never made it. He was thrown to the ground and arrested by agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He has been in detention ever since. Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )

The American Empire: Murder Inc.

Chris Hedges / Truthdig Jan 4, 2016 Investigative journalist Allan Nairn knows firsthand how the U.S. uses mass killing as a routine tool of foreign policy. The horrifying tactics of Islamic State, he says, are an imitation of what we have been doing and what we have been teaching our international proxies for generations. Update: Video added. Dig deeper ( 11 Min. Read )

‘Our Brand Is Crisis’ Film Review: A Half-Baked Hollywood Version of a Great Documentary

By John Patterson Oct 30, 2015 David Gordon Green's star-studded film is a middling comedy about the humdrum conflicts between American meddlers in Bolivia's 2002 election Meanwhile, the Bolivians in it are as invisible as most of the slaves in "Gone With the Wind"David Gordon Green's star-studded film is a middling comedy about the internecine conflicts between American meddlers in Bolivia's 2002 election". Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )

The U.S. Government Is Deporting Central American Migrants to Their Deaths

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Oct 12, 2015 Investigations into the consequences of President Obama's crackdown on migrants find that since 2014, as many as 83 U.S. deportees have been murdered shortly after returning to Central America. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

VIDEO: A Watershed Moment as Guatemala Jails Its President After He Resigns

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Sep 4, 2015 Otto Perez Molina (pictured at far right in the 1980s) has been jailed on charges of corruption just hours after bowing to massive popular protest and resigning as Guatemala's president. “Democracy Now!” speaks to Nobel Peace Prize-winning Maya activist Rigoberta Menchu and journalist Allan Nairn about Perez Molina's past and what could happen next. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Johns Hopkins Sued for $1 Billion Over Deliberate STD Infection Scheme

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Apr 2, 2015 More than 750 plaintiffs are suing the Johns Hopkins Hospital System Corp. over its role in medical experiments in Guatemala in the 1940s and 1950s in which subjects—including orphans, other children and mental patients, according to plaintiffs—were deliberately infected with venereal diseases without their consent. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

The Real Story Behind the ‘Invasion’ of the Children

By Aviva Chomsky, TomDispatch Aug 25, 2014 Pitting the humanitarian imperative to help dislocated children against the plight of American communities places victimology in the service of party politics. Both Republicans and Democrats claim the moral high ground while conveniently avoiding the political economy of the problem they lament -- and have collaborated in creating. Dig deeper ( 9 Min. Read )

Welcoming the Stranger: Refuge for the Refugees

Bill Boyarsky / Truthdig Aug 7, 2014 A long and dangerous journey brings teenage Central American refugees to a community health center in South Los Angeles where pediatricians, psychologists and social workers treat them for post-traumatic stress disorder. Dig deeper ( 5 Min. Read )

A Commander of the Dos Erres Massacre Squad Gets 10 Years in Prison

Staff / Truthdig Feb 11, 2014 A federal judge sentenced a former Guatemalan Army officer to the maximum 10 years in prison Monday for immigration crimes, ruling that the ex-commando obtained U.S. citizenship by concealing his role in the massacre of 250 men, women and children in a Guatemalan village in 1982. Dig deeper ( 5 Min. Read )

Genocide Conviction of Efraín Ríos Montt Overturned

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig May 21, 2013 Guatemala's top court has thrown out the conviction of the general and former military dictator for genocide and crimes against humanity in what Amnesty International has called a "devastating blow for the victims of the serious human rights violations committed during the conflict." Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )