United States’ Role in Terrorism by Guatemalan Government

Freed, referring to the 1954 overthrow of the government by the military, fails to mention that it was the CIA that overthrew this fledgling democracy. Its president, Jacobo Arbenz, was implementing desperately needed agrarian reform (something like 2% of the population own 70% of the land), and in 1954 that sounded too much like communism.

This snuffing out of agrarian reform coupled with the continuing fight against so-called international communism has brought about the near-genocide of the Mayan people who comprise two-thirds of the Guatemalan population. The Mayans are inheritors of a rich civilization that goes back more than 3,000 years.

Since the military assumed power in 1954, they have brutally killed and massacred more than a 100,000 Indians who live in the Highlands where the insurgents make their camps; 440 Mayan villages have been destroyed while many others are in ruins without potable water; 50% of Mayan children die before they reach 5 years old; 150,000 refugees live in United Nations camps across the border. Disappearances continue, and death squads operate with impunity. Torture is practiced as a profession in the military.

The U.S. should discontinue all military aid to Guatemala, which is conducting a war against its own indigenous people. In Guatemala, communism and drugs are not the enemy, poverty is.

ROBIN WALLACE

Palos Verdes Estates