mayans cleanse sacred site after bush's goodwill visit

It seems that US President George Bush’s attempts at gaining popularity in Latin America continue to be unsuccessful. In response to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s comments that Bush is “history’s greatest killer” and “the devil”, the US President thought he might bring some of his charming good lucks and irresistible rhetoric to the region. Alas, his seven-day tour of Latin America (during the week of March 11th – 17th) didn’t seem to impress the locals.

In fact, Bush’s visit to Ixmiche (about 48 km west of Guatemala City), the capital of the Late Post Classic kingdom of the Kaqchiqueles before the Spanish conquest of 1524, brought horror and revulsion. "That a person like [Bush], with the persecution of our migrant brothers in the United States, with the wars he has provoked, is going to walk in our sacred lands, is an offense for the Mayan people and their culture," Juan Tiney, the director of a nongovernmental Mayan organization with (alleged) close ties to traditional Mayan leaders, said March 8th.

No doubt that Bush’s visit to the site was accepted only under protest, as the site was already being prepared for the Third Summit of the Latin American Indian, held there March 26th – 30th. Extra spiritual cleansing was required to rid the area of “bad spirits” following Bush’s visit, a decision made by “spirit guides of the Mayan community”, so that the ancestors could rest in peace, according to Tiney.

I hope that the Mayan priests had an extra large store of incense and ritual chanting to placate the spirits of the sacred site, because I suspect the ancestors weren’t even remotely amused.

For the full story by Juan Carlos Llorca of the Associated Press, go to:

http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2007/03/09/priests_to_purify_site_after_bush_visit/
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2936864
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/03/12/bush.guatemala/index.html

or, for another perspective:

http://markinmexico.blogspot.com/2007/03/guatemala-city-guat-mayans-to-purify.html