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The
General, the Election, and America's School of Assassins
by
Troy Skeels
Dissident
Voice
November 13, 2003
First
Published in Eat the State!
[Editor’s Note: This article was written
before the November 11 election in Guatemala. The Genocidal Butcher Rios Montt
came in a distant third. His running mate accepted defeat and said the results
would not be contested.]
Visiting
Guatemala for the first time recently, the hardest thing to get used to were
the election signs for the November presidential elections urging people to
vote for Efrain Rios Montt. The man should be in prison for crimes against
humanity, not running for president.
But
then I wondered why I found Rios Montt's candidacy particularly creepy.
A
graduate of the notorious School of the Americas, "The General," as
he is called, was basically an enthusiastic servant of the US government when
he committed the worst atrocities in Guatemala's bloody history.
The
Bush administration has repeatedly criticized Rios Montt's campaign, citing his
human rights record. In May, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said
"We would hope to be able to work with, and have a normal, friendly
relationship with whoever is the next president of Guatemala. Realistically, in
light of Mr. Rios Montt's background, it would be difficult to have the kind of
relationship that we would prefer."
Meanwhile,
the US continues to operate the School of the Americas, albeit under a new
name, the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. The purpose of
the school continues to be churning out Latin American military officers
trained in coup plotting, torture, genocide and other nefarious skills for the
purpose of keeping their home populations subject to US political and economic
dominance.
The
Bush Administration that criticizes Rios Montt for human rights atrocities
contains many of the same people that were in the Reagan Administration while
the General was presiding over those atrocities. At that time, the Reagan Administration
denied that Rios Montt's government was doing what the Bush administration now
criticizes him for.
In
1982 the US embassy in Guatemala wrote a report claiming that the claims of
genocide against the indigenous Mayan campesinos was the result of "a
concerted disinformation campaign is being waged in the US against the
Guatemalan government by groups supporting the communist insurgency in
Guatemala." The victims of this "disinformation," including
"conscientious human rights and church organizations," had been duped
by the commies into spreading false information for the purpose of frightening
Congress into cutting off military aid to Guatemala. "Those backing the
communist insurgency are betting on an application, or rather misapplication,
of human rights policy so as to damage the [Guatemalan Government] and assist
themselves."
Rios
Montt ruled Guatemala for 16 months after seizing power from the previous
general in a 1981 coup. Under the guise of "counterinsurgency"
operations against leftist rebels, he and his fellow generals presided over a
scorched earth campaign in which 440 villages targeted as sympathetic to the
guerrillas were wiped off the face of the earth.
Speaking
in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala recently, Gloria, a former leftist Guerilla, said
that "when the army arrived at a targeted village their goal was to
destroy all human life--men, women, children, all the farm animals, and all the
crops." The village was then burned to the ground--erased.
The
report of the UN-backed Guatemala Truth Commission, released in 1999, estimated
that more than 200,000 people were killed during Guatemala's three decade civil
war. Some 70,000 of those were killed during the 16 month dictatorship of Rios
Montt.
According
to a since-declassified CIA memo, In October 1982 The General ordered the
notorious "Archivos" intelligence unit, which was headquartered in
the Presidential Palace, to "apprehend, hold, interrogate, and dispose of
suspected guerrillas as they saw fit."
Insisting
that Rios Montt was "getting a bum rap," and was "totally
dedicated to democracy," Reagan signed waivers permitting military
equipment like helicopters to be sent to Guatemala. The shipments had been cut
off in 1979 over concern with the Guatemalan government's worsening human rights
record.
Rios
Montt is currently the President of the Congress, and a close friend of
Guatemala's current president, Alfonso Portillo, whose corrupt administration
is widely unpopular. The General's earlier attempts to run for president were
rejected by the courts several times, based on a law that prohibits anyone who
has seized power in a coup from running for president. A "stacked"
Constitutional Court ruled 4-3 in July that the law, passed in 1985, could not
be applied retroactively. The move was roundly criticized around the world and
greeted in Guatemala as the death of democracy. Three of the four judges who
ruled on Rios Montt's behalf have close ties to him, including one who was once
his attorney.
Rios
Montt says those opposing him are "groups who wish to destabilize the
country" and says that those against his run for president "are
injuring the civil and political rights of Guatemalans."
Rios
Montt has wide backing in the army and among those who hope that his strongman
approach can increase Guatemalans' security. He is opposed by segments of
society from the business establishment to human rights organizations. During
campaign stops, his entourage has been pelted with stones by people who lost relatives
to his genocidal rule.
Polls
show the General is in fourth place with about 7% of the vote, but with the
Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG) controlling the corruption-ridden government,
there are worries of a rigged election, especially if he makes it to the second
round of voting in a crowded field. Public employees have received letters
telling them to support his campaign.
Rios
Montt is currently facing two genocide cases against him. One has been through
in Spain by Rigoberta Menchu and the other in Guatemala by the survivors of 14
massacres during his dictatorship. If the latter case makes it to trial it will
be the first genocide case ever tried in the country where the crimes occurred.
While
the US government has banned military aid to Guatemala since 1990, and the Bush
administration opposes the possible presidency of Rios Montt, the US government
continues to operate the School of the Americas, where guys like Rios Montt get
their training. So long as the school is open, there will be more Rios Montts.
And more dead.
November
21 to 23, thousands of people from throughout the Americas will converge on
Fort Benning Georgia, home of the School of the Americas for a "Vigil and
Nonviolent Civil Resistance Action," demanding the school be closed. The
previous weekend, Nov. 16, a massive anti-SOA march and rally will be held in
Tacoma; see calendar for details.
*
Sources & more info: School of the Americas Watch, www.soaw.org, The Consortium, Guatemala
Report of the Comission for Historical Clarification, World Press Review
11/1/03
Troy
Skeels is an editor of Eat the State!, a feisty
alternative publication from Seattle, Washington where this article first
appeared (www.eatthestate.org).
Other Articles by Troy Skeels
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