Latin America
Related: About this forumIsrael’s Proxy War in Guatemala
Israels Proxy War in Guatemala
Apr 24 2013
Gabriel Schivone
You may not know it from reading or listening to the major U.S. media, but the rest of the world has been steeped in news coverage of a former Guatemalan head of state recently on trial in a national court (though proceedings are currently on hold) for genocide and crimes against humanity. The accused, General Efraín Ríos Montt, was one of the most vicious mass killers the United Statesor Israelever produced.
Known as Brother Efraín, a fundamentalist convert of the California-based Church of the Word (Verbo), Rios Montt thanked his God in heaven for anointing him as Guatemalas president, but on earth he thanked Israel for establishing his March 1982 military coup. Israeli press reported that 300 Israeli advisors helped execute the coup, which succeeded so smoothly, Brother Efraín told an ABC News reporter, because many of our soldiers were trained by Israelis. Through the height of la violencia (the violence) or desencarnacíon (loss of flesh, loss of being), between the late 1970s to early 1980s, Israel assisted every facet of attack on the Guatemalan people. Largely taking over for the United States on the ground in Guatemala (with Washington retaining its role as paymaster, while also maintaining a crucial presence in the country), Israel had become the successive governments main provider of counterinsurgency training, light and heavy arsenals of weaponry, aircraft, state-of-the-art intelligence technology and infrastructure, and other vital assistance.
At the time, Rios Montt defended his war against the guerrilla, indistinguishable from civilian noncombatants, in this way: Look, the problem of the war is not just a question of who is shooting. For each one who is shooting there are ten working behind him. Rios Montts press secretary added: The guerrillas won over many Indian collaborators. Therefore, the Indians were subversives, right? And how do you fight subversion? Clearly, you had to kill Indians because they were collaborating with subversion. And then they say, Youre massacring innocent people. But they werent innocent. They had sold out to subversion (Witness to Genocide, Survival International, 1983, p. 12). Or, as one of Brother Efaíns Verbo pastors explained to a delegation of Pentecostals from California about the regimes awesome benevolence: The army doesnt massacre Indians, the Verbo pastor assured the visitors. It massacres demons, and Indians are demons possessed; they are communists.
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A February 1983 CBS Evening News with Dan Rather program reported, Israel didnt send down congressmen, human rights activists or priests to strengthen Israels special relationship with Guatemala. Israel taught the Guatemalans how to build an airbase. They set up their intelligence network, tried and tested on the [Israeli-occupied Palestinian] West Bank and Gaza, designed simply to beat the Guerilla. Time magazine (03/28/83) chimed in that Guatemalan army outposts in the jungle have become near replicas of Israeli army field camps. At one of these Israeli outposts replicated in Huehuetenango (among the areas hardest hit by the genocide, with the second highest number of massacres registered by a UN truth commission), Time continues: Colonel Gustavo Menendez Herrera pointed out that his troops are using Israeli communications equipment, mortars, submachine guns, battle gear and helmets. Naturally, as Army Chief of Staff Benedicto Lucas García had stated previously: The Israeli soldier is a model and an example to us.
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http://www.merip.org/mer/mer140/israel-guatemala
Peace Patriot
(24,010 posts)...women, children and elders and other non-combatants, some of them in ways that are difficult to describe, they are so horrible.
I wonder what tit-for-tat occurred between the Reagan junta and Israel to get this slaughter accomplished.
Judi Lynn
(160,587 posts)in the Americas for decades. It just didn't make any sense!
This material throws a whole lot of light upon the questions I've been having. It has NEVER really been a part of any of our corporate "news" coverage of events in the Americas. It is an essential article to read, and to keep for future reference.
Looking forward to finishing the article after some sleep. Thank you, so much.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)What price the Monroe Doctrine?
naaman fletcher
(7,362 posts)What is it about certain authors that they feel compelled to put obvious BS like that in their writings?
http://news.yahoo.com/guatemalan-judge-reopens-genocide-trial-rios-montt-224632074.html
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/rios-montts-genocide-trial-resumes-guatemala-19077170
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/04/24/guatemala-rios-montt/
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/15/world/americas/in-rios-montt-trial-guatemalans-give-account-of-suffering.html
ocpagu
(1,954 posts)Thank you so much for sharing this and opening our eyes for this subject. Not surprised by the fact that the Israeli far right would engage in such crimes, but I'm certainly surprised to learn that they have been active in Central America, possibly doing the dirty work for the criminal Reagan.