When is a Streetcorner Dangerous?

Earlier this week my Spanish teacher told me a story about what happened to her nephew in the early 1980s. During the worst years of the war in Guatemala, Antigua was relatively safe. Most of the guerilla activity was in the mountains surrounding the town rather than in the town itself. Antigua wasn't safe enough.


Her nephew was waiting for his girlfriend one evening at the street corner (above) when he was approached by what amounted to secret police. He was held in a jail in Guatemala city for 2 weeks and tortured. Later, they released him. Sometime after his release, her nephew saw the man who had tortured him. But he could not bring himself to say the man's name much less press charges or seek any sort of legal remedy.