Guatemala and the CIA

Re “CIA Linked to Guatemala Killings, Lawmaker Alleges,” March 23: We applaud the media and Rep. Robert G. Torricelli (D-N.J.) for their recent reports on the cases of Efrain Bamaca Velazquez and Michael DeVine. Yet we are also compelled to point out that information on underlying covert U.S. support for a literally genocidal government in Guatemala has been in distribution for several years.

In this instance, Col. Julio Roberto Alpirez was linked to the Bamaca case by Santiago Cabrera Lopez two years ago in testimony to the OAS. Our government obviously had access to such information also, independently of the classified reports and directives it generated. Many of Guatemala’s 50,000 “disappearances,” 100,000 political killings, and 442 village massacres could have been avoided if the U.S. media would have published more information sooner.

MADELINE RIOS, Editor

Guatemala Review Magazine

Los Angeles

The death of my friend Jennifer Harbury’s husband, Guatemalan Efrain Bamaca Velasquez, at the hands of a Guatemalan military officer on the CIA payroll was confirmed to her by Rep. Torricelli who had the courage to release information known to the CIA, the State Department, the National Security Council and the U.S. military for as long as three years.

In spite of this knowledge, Jennifer was allowed to fast nearly to death, not once but twice, by members of my government.

It is time to put a stop to the abominable activities of our intelligence community. The CIA alone is budgeted $30 billion annually!

There was a memorial service in Washington on March 31 for Jennifer’s husband. But there will be no burial. In what mass grave, in which volcano, where in the ocean he lies, along with 200,000 other Guatemalans killed and disappeared in the last 30 years, is known only to the Guatemalan military which we fund and train at the U.S. Army’s School of Americas, Ft. Benning, Ga.

We can show our sympathy and honor Bamaca’s memory by sending the President and our representatives in Washington our loud and clear No! Never again! to our CIA, our government’s complicity and cover up of such atrocities around the world. No! In answer to your editorial’s question (March 28) “Is any information that might be gained really worth the moral cost of such sleazy associations?” No! Never again!

FIONA KNOX, CoChair

Central America Committee

Unitarian Universalist Service

Committee, Southern California Unit

The Office of the Americas has been working personally and directly with Jennifer Harbury for almost two years in her search for her husband.

This is a critical moment of truth. If the case of Efrain Bamaca Velasquez is given the “isolated incident” treatment, the lie will continue.

The CIA was responsible for the overthrow of the democratic government of Guatemala in 1954. But the CIA has never let go of Guatemala. Through CIA/Guatemalan G-2 connection, the tragic country has been ruled by de facto terror since 1954. “Elected” governments are absolutely subservient to military dictates.

I served as a Maryknoll Father in Guatemala in the 1960s. My expose of the situation in Guatemala was published by the Washington Post on Feb. 4, 1968.

This is the moment to face the truth. The cases of Comandante Everardo and Michael DeVine are not isolated and neither is Guatemala’s savagery.

Guatemala is certainly the banner example of CIA intervention. But the methodology is international. Such policies have given us on-going international disasters. In each case we have developed strong military/intelligence entities for security. What this has given us is de facto military governments in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The policy is bankrupt. And we have become bankrupt in pursuing this policy. Ft. Benning is not only the site of the School of the Americas (read School of Assassins) but also the site of training for Nigerian officers who returned to Africa to terrorize their own people.

We must join Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) in his bid to eliminate this blight on our nation.

BLASE BONPANE, Director

Office of the Americas, Los Angeles

After he left office, Harry Truman said in an interview that CIA ought to be abolished. He gave as his reason that CIA had become “a state within the state.” The inference was that it was “out of control.”

President Clinton should keep Truman’s recommendation in mind as he struggles to keep the country’s most secret organization under control. What happened in Guatemala should be of special concern to him.

AKE SANDLER

Los Angeles