‘Solo quise ser un niño . . . y no me dejaron’

“Solo quise ser un niño . . . y no me dejaron,” “I just wanted to be a child, and they wouldn’t let me.” These heart-wrenchingly sad words are carved into a plaque on the streets in zone 1, Guatemala City, placed there to commemorate the life and death of Nahaman, killed at the age of 13. Nahaman was a young boy living on the streets when one day the police found him and beat him. The plaque now lays …

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Residency

There I was sat on a typically uncomfortable plastic chair in the crowded waiting room at the migration offices of Guatemala City. People had been coming and going, usually with a significant waiting period in between, all morning and I had been sat with my friend and colleague Benjamin for several hours. We were fortunate enough to have a lawyer and his co-worker with us doing the hard graft on our behalves. All we needed to do was wait, sign …

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