Guatemala Apologizes for 1982 Massacre

[Judi Lynn]

Guatemala Apologizes for 1982 Massacre Mon Jul 18, 8:22 PM ET



GUATEMALA CITY - Under orders from an international court, Guatemala apologized Monday for the government-directed massacre of 226 people in a highland village during the nation's bloody civil war.

Vice President Eduardo Stein traveled via helicopter to Plan de Sanchez, 95 miles north of the capital, Guatemala City, to formally accept government responsibility for the killings by soldiers on July 18, 1982.

The government was ordered to apologize by the Inter-American Human Rights Court, which also decreed that the state pay survivors and relatives $7.9 million in damages in a ruling last fall.

Stein said the army had "unleashed bloodshed and fire to wipe out an entire community."
(snip/...)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050719/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/guatemala_human_rights;_ylt=Aq5y9yC3EfmCUbPs5Sz2mHVvaA8F;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

[Judi Lynn]

1. Background on the Guatemalan president, Efraín Ríos Montt

Efraín Ríos Montt
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Efraín Ríos Montt on the campaign trail in 2003José Efraín Ríos Montt (b. June 16, 1926) is a former President of Guatemala and former president of the Congress of Guatemala. In the 2003 presidential elections, he ran an unsuccessful candidate of the ruling Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG), despite a constitutional ban against former dictators running for president.

Popularly known as "the general," Huehuetenango-born Ríos Montt remains one of the most controversial figures in Guatemalan history. Regarded by his opponents as a genocidal neo-fascist, the former military ruler is seen by his supporters as a strong leader capable of restoring order, justice and equality to this turbulent nation. Human-rights groups claim that Ríos Montt, a staunch anticommunist who has had ties to the United States for over five decades (via the Pentagon's School of the Americas), the CIA, presidential administrations, and the evangelical religious right), has been among the bloodiest strongmen in Latin American history.

Ríos Montt is best known outside Guatemala for heading a military regime (1982–1983) that presided over some of the worst atrocities of Guatemala's 36-year civil war, which finally ended with a peace treaty in 1996. Ríos Montt, however, denies that he knew anything about the massacres that were taking place under his rule. The civil war pitted left-wing rebel groups against the army, with huge numbers of Mayan campesinos caught in the crossfire. Some 200,000 Guatemalans were killed during the conflict, making it Latin America's most violent war in modern history.
(snip)

In 1978, he left the Catholic Church and became a minister in the California-based evangelical Church of the Word; since then Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson have been personal friends. Now a born-again Christian, he is a Protestant in a predominantly Roman Catholic country, while the FRG take great pride in having both Catholics and Evangelicals among its rank and file.
(snip)

On March 7, 1982 General Ángel Aníbal Guevara, the official party candidate, won the presidential election. On March 23, with the support of fellow soldiers General Horacio Maldonado Schaad and Colonel Francisco Luis Gordillo Martínez, Ríos Montt seized power in a coup d'état, that was quietly backed by the CIA, deposing General Romeo Lucas García. They set up a military tribunal with Ríos Montt at its head. The junta immediately suspended the constitution, shut down the legislature, set up secret tribunals, and began a campaign against political dissidents that included kidnapping, torture, and extra-judicial assassinations.
(snip/...)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efra%C3%ADn_R%C3%ADos_Montt

[UpInArms]

6. and some more

U.S. must face its role in Guatemala's tragic past - beginning with the CIA-backed overthrow of the Arbenz government, the US is heavily implicated in the decades of violence and death in that country - Editorial

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1141/is_n15_v34/ai_20324605

Guatemalan Catholics displayed a faith that was frighteningly courageous during hellish decades of repression and slaughter. Now they have added profound wisdom to that witness by refusing to allow the past to slip, without accounting, into oblivion.

The story as recounted by Paul Jeffrey (page 3) is at once haunting and life-giving. But a major component of the violence that ripped that society apart for more than 30 years -- U.S. interference in the government of Guatemala and its complicity in the crimes of increasingly brutal regimes -- remains in the shadows.

As a result of the war, Guatemala's Supreme Court registered more than 35,000 widows and 200,000 orphans due to political violence; more than 440 villages were destroyed; at least 100,000 civilians have died due to political violence since 1954.

There was wanton killing on both sides, but, as was the case in neighboring El Salvador and elsewhere in Latin America, the use of mass slaughter, torture and terror was overwhelmingly the domain of the ruling military dictatorship.

...more...

and

CANDIDATE ROBERTSON'S CENTRAL AMERICA POLICY

http://www.holysmoke.org/wb/wb0239.htm

TV preacher Pat Robertson is the only prospective
presidential candidate who not only has a Central America policy
but also provides Bibles, beans, and maybe even bullets to U.S.
backed forces in the region.

Until recently, Robertson was seen by most as just another
slick televangelist. But his soft-spoken style is misleading; his
actions speaker louder than his words.

Robertson's controversial activities include: support for
the slaughter of thousands of Indians by a Guatemalan dictator;
public praise for the reputed leader of Salvadoran death squads;
collaboration with murky U.S. mercenary groups; and the provision
of chaplains and funds to the contra army seeking to topple the
government of Nicaragua.

Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network is the largest
non-commercial TV network in the world, with an annual budget of
about $230 million. The most popular of all religious TV shows,
Robertson's 90-minute weekday "700 Club" has an estimated 28.7
million regular U.S. viewers. CBN also broadcasts to 65 foreign
countries, including Israel, Argentina, Namibia, El Salvador, and
Honduras.

<snip>

By late 1983, Robertson shifted his attention to El
Salvador, where he interviewed President Alvaro Magana and
individuals connected with Salvadoran death squads. Robertson
returned about the same time that the Kissinger Commission made
headlines with recommendations for unprecedented levels of U.S.
aid to Central America. On the "700 Club" Robertson stressed that
the Magana government was getting a bum rap. He warned his
audience not to rely on the "biased liberalism" of Newsweek, Time
and U.S. News and World Report, while he praised death squad
leader Robert D'Aubuisson as a "very nice fellow."

...more...

and on to Robert D'Aubuisson:

America's Fear Factory: The School of the Americas

http://www.trentu.ca/arthur/archive/36/36-10/feature.shtml

excerpt:

Attendees of the SOA

It is impossible to sufficiently explore the long list of SOA graduates who have been linked to human rights abuses throughout the Americas. Although this list is by no means extensive it will hopefully raise questions as to the meaning of the phrase "state-sponsored terrorism" and the SOA's culpability in atrocities that have occurred within the Americas at the hands of its graduates.

Robert D'Aubuisson of El Salvador

D'Aubuisson planned and ordered the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero, who worked extensively with the poor in El Salvador. D'Aubuisson also organized El Salvador's death squad network from 1978-1992.

Multiple leaders and participants of Argentina's "Dirty War," including military dictators Leopoldo Galtieni and Roberto Viola In 1985, Viola was convicted of murder, kidnap and torture for his actions during the "Dirty War." Participants also include infamous torturer Sergeant Elpidio Rosario Tejeda who played a large role in the Argentine concentration camp of La Perla.

...more...

[EFerrari]

2. Oh that's rich.

I wonder how much that cost the Pentagon?

[lapislzi]

3. Ooopsie...my bad...sorry....

that's pretty frickin' pathetic.

I think a little restitution is in order, don't you?

[blindpig]

4. when will we apologise?

Every drop of blood on that bastards hands is equally on the hands of the Reagan administration. The shamelessness of America knows no bounds.

[WinkyDink]

5. "apologizes"

But does Guatemala also send flowers? Miss Manners wants to know.

[Zorra]

7. Rotten Ronnie Reagan and his band of fascist thugs strike again.

The Reagan administration was soooo unabashedly and unashamedly corrupt....it is hard to believe that the enormity of the corruption of this Bu*h cesspool republican administration makes Rotten Ronnie look like a minor petty criminal instead of the conscienceless monster that he really was.

Now many of the very same fascist thugs that committed crimes against humanity during Rotten Ronnie's evil tenure are in high level positions in the Bu*h administration, and have been given license to commit crimes against humanity indiscriminately.

[daleo]

8. It puts all that Reagan worship in a different light. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

9. Guatemala-related program activities:Warrant Issued for Ex-Guatemalan Lead

Warrant Issued for Ex-Guatemalan Leader

Wednesday July 20, 2005 2:46 AM


GUATEMALA CITY (AP) - A judge issued an arrest warrant for former President Alfonso Portillo Tuesday in connection with the alleged misuse of millions of dollars during his tenure.

Portillo, whose four-year term ended in January 2004, and fled to Mexico and took up residence there as the corruption scandal grew.

Portillo is accused of authorizing the transfer of $16 million from the finance department to the defense department, where investigators allege much of it was converted to cash and pocketed by officials close to Portillo.

Attorney General Juan Luis Florido said the government doesn't plan to immediately seek his extradition.

``We want to have all the documentation so that there's no error when we present it'' to Mexico, Florido said.
(snip/...)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5153027,00.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
_Bush hosts Portilla in 2001....



US praises President Portillo's focus on human rightsThursday, 5 July, 2001, 19:25 GMT 20:25 UK
Guatemala rights urged

Guatemala is in a "healing process" on human rights matters, President Alfonso Portillo has told US President George Bush on his first official visit to Washington.
Guatemala has faced criticism from human rights groups since the 1996 peace accord that ended the country's 36-year civil war

The country's democracy is fragile and poverty is widespread.


The civil war is over, but
the country is still unstable

On Thursday Mr Portillo met the US President for low-key talks in the Oval Office.
(snip/...)http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1424371.stm

[Endangered Specie]

10. "Under orders from an international court"

in other words: not an apology.