Latin America: Guatemala: New info surfaces on rightwing death squads in Guatemala's recent past, some Christians implicated

Guatemala passed thru a very difficult period in its history in which the spread of leftist guerrillas led to the formation of secret righwing death squads, both of which preyed on villagers, each side trying to corral them into support for its cause. Now comes a break in the lack of documentation of an array of abuses, and of information about some of the abused, as reported by Reuters (which bans the use of the word "terrorist" in its reportage).

Some 30,000 police files have been unearthed and confirm that human rights abuses took place in the 1980s at the height of the country's civil war, Guatemala's human rights ombudsman said on Saturday.

The documents, discovered in archives of the now defunct National Police, contain information about disappearances in the 36-year civil war during which rights groups estimate 200,000 people died and 50,000 vanished, ombudsman Sergio Morales said.

I hope the info sheds new lite on the career of a rightwing Pentecostal Christian, General Rios Mott who, I believe, eventually became President of the country, and about whom there is much journalism that makes him indeed hi-ly suspect for the commission of multiple crimes against humanity. No Christian should hesitate to pray he may be cawt and brawt to trial, if evidence leads to his indictment. If guilty of half of what he's accused, he should receive the severest penalty that Guatemalan law allows. If innocent, he should be exponerated. But I doubt that latter will be the case. - Politicarp

I attach a text from another blog, which requires me to be not forget my concern regarding the practice and policy of General Rios Mott.

On September 15, 1981, Rabinal (center of the Maya-Achi world in Guatemala) celebrated its biggest annual town fair. As villagers auctioned their cattle and children climbed into a Ferris wheel, the Guatemalan national army blocked all the exits from the town square and began massacring indiscriminately the fairgoers; even the Ferris wheel operator was killed. Witnesses estimate more than 1,000 people were killed that day and their bodies dumped into mass graves on the edge of town.

This was the largest of dozens of massacres in the municipality of Rabinal that left more than 5,000 Maya-Achi dead, more than a quarter of the total local population at the time. Family members of the victims of the September 15 massacre recently exhumed the remains of some of the victims (with the support of the FAFG exhumation team), and planned to properly bury their loved ones on June 14, 2003. On June 2, ADIVIMA (Association for the Development of the Maya AchiVictims of Violence) began plans for the re-burial. They placed radio announcements and on June 9 got the required permit from the mayor.

What is on-going impunity? This mayor is an active local leader of the FRG political party and a man personally accused of killing hundreds while he served as Military Commissioner during the years of repression and genocide. In spite of the surviving victims plans, on June 12 the FRG announced a political campaign visit to Rabinal for their Presidential candidate in the upcoming November elections, Efrian Rios Mott. Rios Mott was the military dictator of Guatemala during the second half of the scorched earth military campaign whose strategy was to massacre civilian, mostly Mayan villagers, including many whose remains were to be re-buried June 14. Rios Montt has been formally accused of genocide in two separate complaints, one in Guatemalan courts and another in Spain.

His eligibility to run for president is in question because of a constitutional provision preventing those who came into power through a military coup from running for president. Though lower courts have rejected his candidacy, the Constitutional Court will make the final ruling. What is national and global impunity? Whether the courts rule in his favor or not, he remains the president of the ruling party and the most powerful politician in the country, maintaining a whole host of economic, political and military relations with western countries, international financial institutions and global companies and banks.

On the day of the re-burial, more than 500 surviving victims gathered to carry the coffins to the cemetery. Outraged by the presence of Rios Montt in Rabinal they decided to carry the coffins to the FRG rally as a demonstration against the ongoing impunity enjoyed by the authors of genocide in Guatemala. Many accused war criminals, including Rios Montt and Rabinals mayor, form part of the FRG-controlled government, which dominates the executive branch and congress.

I simply do not know how much weight I can put on such accounts of Mott and his subordinates in Guatemala. The sources are almost always leftist. But on the other hand that doesn't mean the reports ipso facto therefore are false. May the new information lead to justice. General Rios Mott will definitely be one, perhaps the chief figure, about whom a thoro inquiry and adjudication must be made. - Politicarp

GUATEMALA: THROWING STONES AT A LEADER OF GENOCIDE by Annie Bird and Grahame Russell (Rights Action)