Guatemala-State Terror, Resistance On The Rise
Guatemala-State Terror, Resistance on the Rise
by Jon Reed
"Human rights abuses have essentially been viewed as a public relations problem under President Cerezo." - America Watch Report on Guatemala, March 11, 1990
GUATEMALA CITY - According to a news release by the U.S. State Department, there were over 2,000 political crimes perpetrated by death squads and right-wing paramilitary groups in Guatemala in 1989 alone. An examination of human rights statistics and reports in the Guatemalan press reveal that there have been over 7,000 unsolved assassinations, kidnappings, and disappearances since the pseudo-civilian administration of Vinicio Cerezo carne to power four years ago. Only three other U.S. allies in the hemisphere have an ongoing human rights record as bad as Guatemala: Colombia, Peru, and El Salvador.
Despite these appalling statistics, the Reagan and Bush administrations, with the acquiescence of congression al liberals, have directly or indirectly pumped over $200 million a year into the Guatemalan economy. U.S. military counter-insurgency operations, involving hundreds of troops and National Guard personnel, are on the increase - especially in the war zones of Chimallenango, Quiche, and the Peten. Meanwhile, the horrendous reputation of the Guatemalan pólice and army have forced the Bush administration to conceal this intervention behind the facade of social welfare, public works, and the war on drugs.
In early March, as the United Nations was discussing what to do about human rights violations in Guatemala, the Bush administration recalled Guatemalan Ambassador Thomas Strook back to Washington for a week, supposedly to express U.S. displeasure with the ongoing bloodbath. But things had "retumed to normal" by March 13. President Cerezo promised to respect human rights and to step up the war on drugs, while the White House agreed to keep supplying the money and military support that make the carnage possible. Within 48 hours more mutilated bodies had appeared on the streets and roadsides.
As Guatemalan exile leader Frank LaRue and others have pointed out, the obvious reason for this increased repression has been the rise in activity of the above-ground popular movement and the armed insurgency. And as the National Security State economy of Guatemala deteriorates further, more and more citizens will be protesting, going on strike, refusing to participate in the mandatory civil patrols, or joining up as collaborators and fighters for the URNG. In response to this upsurge in activity, the economic and military elite of the country are reverting back to the early 1980s doctrine of "total war." After allowing the Christian Democratic Cerezo administration to experiment for several years with a slightly less bloody form of low-intensity warfare, increased violence and political repression are to be expected in the early 1990s.
Since the powerful Salvador an FMLN guerrilla offensive of last November, the U.S. invasion of Panama in December, and the February 25 Nicaraguan elections, more and more opposition activists in Guatemala seem to agree that only a regional resistance campaign, coupled with intemal changes in the U.S., will bring about a negotiated, socially just solution to the generalized crisis of the region. Thousands of highly politicized Salvadorans have taken temporary refuge in Guatemala over the last few months, and their interactions with the above ground and clandestine resistance here seem to have had a beneficial effect on the overall morale of the movement. If the Salvadorans caneventually defeat their death-squad democracy, so can the Guatemalans.
Unfortunately the Bush administration can be expected to try to crush any future left-wing revolution in th hemisphere, as the recent Nicaraguan experience shows. As an activist in the countryside recently explained to me, Guatemala and the countries of Latin America will eventually gain their liberation - but more as a bloc, rather than individually - and in the meantime it's going to be a long, bloody struggle. For the moment, things are worse than ever in Guatemala and Central America, but the signs of grassroots rebellion and resistance appear to be growing.