"An April 17, 1981, a CIA cable[pdf] described an army massacre at Cocob, near Nebaj in the Ixil Indian territory, because the population was believed to support leftist guerrillas.
A CIA source reported that “the social population appeared to fully support the guerrillas” and “the soldiers were forced to fire at anything that moved.” The CIA cable added that “the Guatemalan authorities admitted that ‘many civilians’ were killed in Cocob, many of whom undoubtedly were non-combatants.”
In May 1981, despite these ongoing atrocities, Reagan dispatched Walters to tell the Guatemalan leaders that the new U.S. administration wanted to lift the human rights embargoes on military equipment that former President Jimmy Carter and Congress had imposed."
The Guatemala Documentation Project, part of the
National Security Archive, collects information about
the decades long civil war in Guatemala, including State Department documents that point to Washington's complicity in
massacres,
assassinations and
human rights violations.
posted by empath
on Mar 5, 2013 -
21 comments
This weekend, TAL
ran an episode on the massacre at
Dos Erres. What they didn't mention was that this happened as part of the "
Silent Holocaust" -- a "systematic campaign of genocide against the Mayan people."
An estimated 83% of the massacred people were indigenous Maya. Throughout the period of the genocide, the USA continued to
provide military support to the Guatemalan government, mainly in the form of arms and equipment, despite knowing that the
Guatemala military was responsible for the killings.
Horatio Castellanos Moya, an exiled Honduran writer, wrote
Senselessness, his first book to be published in English, based on the testimonies taken by the Catholic Church's Recuperation of History project, which led to
Bishop José Gerardi Conedera releasing the
Guatemala: Never Again! report. Two days later, he was bludgeoned to death.
posted by Felicity Rilke
on May 28, 2012 -
21 comments
Bill Moyers' scathing 1987 special report on our
secret government.(SLYT)(via)(trigger warning: pictures and video of dead bodies) It includes an in-depth look at the Iran-Contra Affair and much, much more. Note: sound cuts out for a couple of minutes during the intro because of copyrighted song. Sound returns around 3:20.
posted by AElfwine Evenstar
on Mar 23, 2012 -
19 comments
"My name is Rodrigo Rosenberg Marzano and, alas, if you are hearing or seeing this message it means that I’ve been murdered by President Álvaro Colom, with the help of Gustavo Alejos." Rosenberg went on, "The reason I'm dead, and you're therefore watching this message, is only and exclusively because during my final moments I was the lawyer to Mr. Khalil Musa and his daughter Marjorie Musa, who, in cowardly fashion, were assassinated by President Álvaro Colom, with the consent of his wife, Sandra de Colom, and with the help of . . . Gustavo Alejos."
posted by vidur
on Mar 28, 2011 -
48 comments
Time magazine
reports on a viral video in Guatemala:
"When Rodrigo Rosenberg turned up dead on Mother's Day in an upscale neighborhood in Guatemala City, his murder was seen as little more than another execution-style shooting in one of Latin America's most dangerous countries. Now, after a video emerged in which Rosenberg accused Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom of orchestrating the murder, the killing has sparked civic unrest that threatens to topple the President of this fledgling democracy."
posted by shothotbot
on May 15, 2009 -
24 comments
Latin
America
Turning
Left?
From the top
:
Lula da Silva*,
Lopez Obrador,
Nestor Kirchner,
Hugo Chavez*,
Alvaro Uribe,
Michelle Bachelet*,
Ollanta Humala,
Alfredo Palacio,
Oscar Berger,
Leonel Fernandez,
Oscar Arias,
Tony Saca,
Tabare Vazquez,
Martín Torrijos,
Evo Morales*
Manuel Zelaya,
Nicanor Duarte,
Daniel Ortega,
Rene Preval*.
posted by airguitar
on Apr 13, 2006 -
30 comments
