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.
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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.
Lacy MacAuley
Robert Alvarez
Sarah Anderson
Phyllis Bennis
John Cavanagh
Chuck Collins
Karen Dolan
John Feffer
Saul Landau
Miriam Pemberton
Manuel Perez-Rocha
Marcus Raskin
Janet Redman
Sanho Tree
Tiffany Williams
Emira Woods
Daphne Wysham
Joy Zarembka