Senator Leahy assesses the situation in Guatemala
Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont has released an terrific statement on recent developments in Guatemala. Really, you should go read it all. Among other issues, he did a pretty good job identifying the positives and negatives of US relations with Guatemala.
However, the Guatemalan right, which includes the current military-economic elite government of Otto Perez Molina, is really going to hate this letter.
Much of this support makes me think of US officials meeting with Cuban democracy activists. I imagine this statement would have been met with outrage had it been delivered to El Salvador (which it probably should have as well).
Senator Leahy also called on Honduran and Salvadoran governments to look to as something of a model. From my perspective, there's going to have to be a lot more international and domestic pressure for either of those two governments to adopt a CICIG-model. Honduras is probably more likely to adopt one than El Salvador even though I have the impression that a model would be more effective in El Salvador.
The US supports some economic and security policies, as well as some individuals, that undermine the promotion of democracy in the region for sure. We also have our own self-interest in mind, as well as those of US-based multinational corporations and civil-society oriented advocacy groups, when interacting with the region, but I find the fear that the US is trying to take over and control the Central American governments somewhat laughable. The same goes for our desire to keep them poor and unstable because that serves our interests. That might have been the case years ago, I just don't see that as the US' motivation today.
However, the Guatemalan right, which includes the current military-economic elite government of Otto Perez Molina, is really going to hate this letter.
The Cold War history of U.S. involvement in Guatemala is not one we can be overly proud of. The role of the United Fruit Company, the CIA, Guatemala’s landholding elite, and others in orchestrating the removal of democratically elected President Jacobo Arbenz Guzman in 1954, the training and equipping of the Guatemalan military that carried out a scorched Earth campaign against a rebel insurgency and the rural indigenous population in the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s, and policies favoring the financial and political elite who perpetuated the racism, social and economic inequities, corruption, violence, and impunity that persist to this day, are all part of that collective experience.
One of the vestiges of that period is the continuing harassment, vilification, death threats, and even malicious prosecutions of human rights defenders and other social activists. It is regrettable that Guatemala’s authorities have failed to condemn or take effective steps to stop this pattern and practice of threats and abuse of the justice system.Chixoy dam reparations, establishment and continuation of CICIG, financial support to unearth mass graves. What's not for the Guatemalan right not to like. Ambassador Todd Robinson visited the facilities of the Fundación AntropologÃa Forense Guatemala (FAFG) and attended the Rios Montt trial yesterday.
Much of this support makes me think of US officials meeting with Cuban democracy activists. I imagine this statement would have been met with outrage had it been delivered to El Salvador (which it probably should have as well).
The US supports some economic and security policies, as well as some individuals, that undermine the promotion of democracy in the region for sure. We also have our own self-interest in mind, as well as those of US-based multinational corporations and civil-society oriented advocacy groups, when interacting with the region, but I find the fear that the US is trying to take over and control the Central American governments somewhat laughable. The same goes for our desire to keep them poor and unstable because that serves our interests. That might have been the case years ago, I just don't see that as the US' motivation today.
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