Bush in Guatemala: Time to Tackle Impunity

[Say_What]

Will El Mono clean up RayGuns mess?

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President Bush will be touching down for a visit to Guatemala about two weeks before the twenty-fifth anniversary of the coup d’état that brought to power General Efraín Ríos Montt, one of the most murderous US-backed dictators of the Cold War era. While Guatemalans are engaged in a struggle to bring that man to justice, a White House press release says Bush will be visiting “to experience the rich cultural diversity of this Central American nation, meet with President Oscar Berger, and emphasize the close relationship between our two countries.”

While the President should be sure to appreciate Guatemala’s diversity and beauty, he also has the opportunity and obligation to make this trip a serious and productive one by helping bring to a close one of the bloodiest periods in Guatemala’s history, for which the US bears much responsibility.

General Ríos Montt seized power from his predecessor, President Romeo Lucas García, on March 23, 1982. During the reigns of these two leaders, more than 132,000 civilians were killed. According to a UN-sponsored truth commission, 93% of these murders were perpetrated by state security forces.

Much like former dictator Augusto Pinochet of Chile, Lucas García recently died before being held accountable for his crimes. Ríos Montt, however, is alive and still a powerful political figure in Guatemala. While he has thus far managed to evade prosecution attempts for his crimes, survivors of the general’s scorched earth campaigns began fighting to bring him and members of his military and civilian high command to justice in the Guatemalan and Spanish legal systems in 2001 and 1999, respectively. Ríos Montt’s legal team is stalling the process with unsubstantiated appeals, and the Guatemalan Attorney General lacks the political will to move the case forward.

The evidence against Ríos Montt includes thousands of recently exhumed corpses, hundreds of officially documented massacres, myriad eyewitnesses, and a chain of command that leads directly to him. An international arrest warrant restricts the former dictator from fleeing to other countries, but within Guatemala he remains free. In fact, Ríos Montt is expected to run for the Guatemalan Congress in September, motivated by the possibility of gaining immunity as a sitting member of congress.

Over the years, Ríos Montt received immense support from the United States government. He was trained in “counterinsurgency tactics” at the School of the Americas, run by the US army. He received funds and weapons from our country, and the explicit support of figures such as Ronald Reagan and Pat Robertson. President Clinton acknowledged these mistakes and apologized to Guatemala during a visit there in 1999. President Bush can now go a step further and support Guatemala’s struggle against impunity by encouraging the Guatemalan government to either move the national case against Ríos Montt and his cohorts forward or respect the international arrest warrants issued by Spain and extradite them to that country. By supporting the survivors of genocide, Bush would truly promote justice, security and stability in the region.

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Mar07/Rutzke11.htm