Press Room

As horrible as that 17 month period during the Reagan administration was for the indigenous people of Guatemala it was only a brief moment of horror in the macabre drama of U.S.-Guatemala relations.  For many in the world there is no doubt that U.S. support, encouragement and guidance made it culpable in the genocidal policies of its’ client State during that 17-month period. The history of U.S. and Guatemalan relations since the U.S. inspired coup of 1954 that overthrew Guatemala’s reformist President Jacobo Arbenz has been a sordid history of criminal collusion against the people of Guatemala.

. . . 

For those of us who lived through the 1980s and opposed the genocidal policies in Guatemala, we celebrate the small sliver of justice that the conviction of Rios Montt represents.  But our moment of satisfaction is tempered by the awful memories of what occurred in that country, our knowledge of the role that the U.S. played in those horrors and the possibility that the hegemonic puppeteer might once again escape accountability if we don’t act.

PHYLLIS BENNIS: I think inside Syria [the video] is going to be one of the most antagonizing, provocative things one can imagine . . . But I think it also . . . is going to make it even harder for those in the U.S. . . . who are pressuring the Obama administration to take a more direct military role in this war . . . to say "there's a good opposition, yeah we know there's bad guys in the opposition, but there's a good opposition." Because apparently, from what we know, if it is true, the person who did this is from the Free Syrian Army, not from the Al-Nusra Front, not from the Al-Qaeda side. 

. . . HOST: Is it too late for peace talks that start when, not just talking about the Syrian opposition, which as you've already pointed out, is all over the place, and the government -- but you're also talking about a region that's exploding.

PHYLLIS BENNIS: Absolutely. It's never too late. 

When there's a war going on, what you need is to de-escalate; and you need negotiations, you need diplomacy. There's not going to be a military solution here. All there will be from the military is more dead Syrians.

So there needs to be negotiations, and this move between the US and Russia is a good first step. It will only have merit, it will only work if it is matched by an agreement by both sides, which means the US and Russia, yes, but also Qatar and Iran, for instance, the major backers militarily of each side; if they agree to stop sending additional weapons, then we may see some possibility for this new diplomacy. If the weapons continue to flow into both sides, and if the war continues, then the diplomacy won't matter.