This week’s episode: The Robert Mueller of Latin America

Crusading prosecutor Iván Velásquez is known for jailing presidents and paramilitaries. But Velásquez met his match when he began to investigate Jimmy Morales, a comedian who was elected president of Guatemala. Morales found a powerful ally in Donald Trump.

The U.S.' responsibility for Guatemalans' political problems

The U.S. bears some responsibility for the conditions that are forcing Guatemalans to flee to the north. Roughly 500 unaccompanied minors arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border each day, and almost half of the migrants are coming from Guatemala.

As reporter Maria Martin explains on this week's episode, the U.S. connection to Guatemalan politics goes back decades. In 1954, the CIA ousted Guatemala's first democratically elected president. This was during the Cold War, and President Dwight Eisenhower claimed that supporting military dictatorships, at the expense of an elected president, would help erode communist influence in Latin America. The results were catastrophic for Guatemalans. As Martin says on the show, “These were regimes that the U.S. government helped put in power and funded with taxpayer money, and that committed massacres and genocide and were responsible for the disappearance of an entire generation of Guatemalans." The regimes were responsible for the disappearance of over 200,000 people, according to the U.N., the majority Indigenous Maya. 

The U.S. formally apologized for this in 1999, but the legacy of that violence remains today. In the wake of those wars, corrupt politicians, not too different from military dictators, took power. They perpetuated a system in which a handful of elites got much richer and everyday Guatemalans were stuck in a cycle of poverty.

In reporting from Guatemala for this week’s episode, Martin connects that history to current anti-corruption efforts. The United Nations, the U.S. and Guatemala came together in an effort to root out corruption and establish the rule of law in the country. But the results did not pan out, due in part to the influence of U.S. President Donald Trump. 

The work we do takes an enormous expenditure of time and resources. But we work hard to tell these stories because we see every day that arming people with facts helps them live better lives. 

Reveal won two IRE medals! 

Investigative Reporters and Editors has bestowed two of its highest honors upon Reveal for projects that uncovered exploitation in drug rehabs and the prolonged detention of migrant children by the U.S. government. 

American Rehab, our serial podcast series that uncovered a nationwide system of unpaid labor at rehabs, won IRE’s award for audio in the large category. It was also awarded an IRE Medal, which is given out for especially excellent reporting projects. Here are the very kind words from the IRE judges:

Often you either have a great story or a great investigation, but rarely do you get both. “American Rehab” has all of it. Shoshana Walter’s deep dive into work-based rehab programs exposed a loophole in labor oversight and regulation that allows participants to work for little or no pay. It was technically perfect and flawlessly executed. … Reveal pulled all the parts of a very complicated investigation together for listeners in a way that was ideally suited for the medium.

Listen to the podcast serial here.

The Disappeared, a running series exposing how long-term detention in the United States changes migrant children, won IRE’s Freedom of Information Award, a medal given to work that furthers open records and open government. Here’s how the judges described the reporting by Aura Bogado and Melissa Lewis: 

A masterful investigation that exposed systematic harm and laid bare the consequences by piecing together how they had played out in the case of a girl who had been misled to think her family had abandoned her. Melissa Lewis’ data analysis of records, obtained through the news outlet’s litigation, gave the public an unprecedented look at the lives of thousands of children, exposing that many had been detained for long periods. Reporter Aura Bogado’s relentless quest to find out what happened to a girl who had been swallowed up by the system is both admirable and expertly told. It isn’t easy to include first person in an investigation and Bogado’s inclusion of herself in the story is pitch-perfect.

Read Part 1 and Part 2 of the series and listen to the podcast. 

Reveal Recommends

Amanda Pike is the director of TV and documentaries at Reveal. She develops and oversees Reveal’s documentary films, as well as TV news reports, animations and digital videos. The portrait of Amanda at work was drawn by her 8-year-old daughter. 

Listening: I pretty much only listen to musical theater – I try to keep my headphones on so as to not unduly raise the ire of my teenagers. I love ’em all – from “Spring Awakening” to “The Scarlet Pimpernel,” from “Chess” to “A Chorus Line” and classics from the 1940s. I’ve been known to play cheesy inspirational anthems in the edit room when things get bleak. 

Reading: My youngest daughter and I have been reading the Harry Potter series over the course of lockdown. While it's not my first time at that rodeo, the pandemic has definitely brought home more viscerally the feeling of the books and the world in crisis over an existential threat. My husband has also been conducting “Harry Potter school” for my daughter, so magic has felt alive and present in our house over the past year.

Watching: I've been working my way through the short list of Oscar-nominated documentaries. This has been a great year for film – there are so many amazing docs to check out. “Boys State” is a personal favorite.

This newsletter is written by Sarah Mirk. Have any feedback or ideas? Send them my way.