Word: guatemala
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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American support for dictators and death squads is not unique to Guatemala. And this support is not passive--death squads are trained and equipped by Americans, and American agents often accompany them on missions. They often commit their most horrible atrocities just after returning from U.S. "refresher" training, and they have not hesitated to kill and torture American citizens. This pattern extends to many Latin American countries that the U.S. influences. Over the last few decades, the C.I.A. has supported the butchers of Haiti, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Panama, just to name a few. But there...
...revolution in Guatemala overthrew a dictator and set up a democratic, capitalist government roughly based on the example of American New Deal policies. But the new government made the fatal mistake of opposing economic exploitation by U.S. multinational corporations, such as the United Fruit Company, which has been basically running the country. U.S. business and government leaders were worried that the Guatemalan model of self-determinism might be adopted by neighboring nations...
Since 1978, the Guatemalan military has killed over 110,000 civilians, including a near-genocidal campaign against Maya Indians, and torture is even more widespread. Murder, rape and torture are used for political coercion. Human rights reports from Guatemala are sickening. Victims are found burned to death or with their genitals cut off and shoved in their mouths...
Throughout the 1980s, Reagan and Bush hailed Guatemala's military as resistors of foreign-sponsored communist aggression, a blatant lie. The guerrillas were neither Soviet not Cuban proxies and probably were never more than 2,000 strong. The military was mainly a threat to Guatemala...
Congress and President Clinton must exert pressure on the military and the C.I.A. to declassify documents dealing with Guatemala. Congress should also hold public hearings to expose the whole truth. The Guatemala killers and the Americans who are complicit in their atrocities must be punished...