Coming Clean on Guatemala

The atrocities committed by the Guatemalan army against its people have been amply documented. It is well known that throughout most of the 34-year-long fratricidal war the army took its orders from a succession of repressive governments determined to overwhelm and subjugate the Indian population. And it did not act alone.

The CIA’s involvement in the internal affairs of Guatemala--the agency’s decisive role in overthrowing President Jacobo Arbenz in 1954, for instance--is also well documented. Murkier is the 1993 involvement of a CIA “asset” in the torture and murder of a Guatemalan guerrilla commander, Efrain Bamaca, and the agency’s subsequent cover-up of the crime.

Now a report by the Guatemalan Historical Clarification Commission has presented a central, chilling fact: more than 200,000 people killed or missing and presumed dead. Blame in the report falls squarely on the army, which was deemed responsible for 93% of the 42,275 human rights violations that the panel investigated during the 18 months that followed Guatemala’s 1996 peace accords.

Guatemalans from all sides ought to be commended for pursuing the tragic truth of these brutal wars. Now there must be consequences for the guilty. President Alvaro Arzu has a duty to ensure that the commission’s recommendations are implemented. Among these are a financial reparations program for the families of the army’s victims and the exhumation of bodies from clandestine cemeteries.

The U.S. government also bears a debt to the people of Guatemala, for its armed services and intelligence personnel have played a part in supporting the Guatemalan military since the days of the Eisenhower administration.

The time has come for Washington to clear the air about its role. President Clinton can help by supporting an effort to have some CIA files on its Guatemala operations released to the public. This chapter of U.S. meddling in the Americas should be ended with justice and disclosure.