Although Guatemala is far from worst off in Latin America, nearly half of its children are chronically malnourished, which puts it among the worst countries in the world (“A National Shame,” August 29, 2009). And, as one learns halfway into your leader, almost all of them are of the Mayan extraction. In the recent past, the Maya were the main victims of the civil war pitting abominable military dictatorships against desperate left-wing guerillas. But the Maya, the only people of the entire region with history written by themselves, have suffered from all post-conquest regimes to date. For no less than four centuries in a row! The indigenous people of Guatemala and the surrounding countries have fallen victim to every disgrace ever invented by Europeans and their stooges in the developing world. Malnutrition is only the latest trick inflicted upon them. The plight of the Maya is thus not only a national shame; it is an international shame of the highest order, as well.