Guatemala: The Politics of Violence
Some Latin American countries achieve world-wide prominence because of their size and power (Brazil); others as a source of strategic raw materials (Venezuela); others because of their location...
...military aid and police assistance to Guatemala...
...And finally, in the winter of 1971-72, there were ersistent reports of guerrilla activity in the Peten, in the extreme northeastern part of the country, and along Guatemala's border with Mexico...
...in overthrowing Arbenz and installing his successor, Col...
...It may be questioned whether we're getting our money's worth...
...During January, 1972, there were more deaths from political violence than from (the very common) traffic accidents...
...Since foreign corporations nearly always use the capital-intensive technologies developed outside Guatemala, they have made no contribution toward alleviating the nation's serious unemployment problem...
...academics concerned with Latin America, LASA condemns this situation in Guatemala...
...In addition to carefully combing the entire Peten to find the guerrillas, Guatemalan troops carried their operations across the Mexican border (El GrAfico Janr uary 25, 1972...
...Foreign investment doubled from $137.6 million in 1959 to $286.25 million in 1969;2 by 1970 86% of this investment came from U.S...
...In many respects Guatemala has been a kind of laboratory for counter-insurgency in Latin America...
...The armed guerrilla movement in Izabal and Zacapa ( in Eastern Guatemala) which had become a threat to established authority in those areas by 1966, was crushed by 1968, after the U.S...
...These hearings should be open, should include nongovernment witnesses, and should place special emphasis on the role of the U.S...
...El Grafico, January 5, 1972...
...violators of the regulations were shut down or directly censored...
...Landowners, including United Fruit, have received assistance from the army in evicting peasants from land which they had occupied, often for years,and murdering the organizers...
...Thus, particularly in industry, the process of economic growth based on foreign investment has not been organic to the Guatemalan economy, but rather has been designed to meet the needs of U.S.-based corporations...
...Gabriel Aguilera, "La Violencia en juatemala Como Fenomeno Politico," (Guatemala: 197Q);]n n Gall...
...academics interested in Latin America, adopted a resolution "On the Terror in Guatemala" (see box...
...SFRC, op...
...1 7 Once again, the U.S...
...and numerous other articles...
...The contract was signed after 10 years of negotiations and much public oppostion, due to the unfavorable terms for Guatemala...
...Between 1950 and 1964, unemployment rose from 56% to 70% of the total urban population...
...and furthermore that the iolence is not accidental, but essential to the Counter-Revolution's objectives of permanently demobilizing the Guatemalan people, providing foreign investors with the stability they demand, and maintaining the privileges of the Guatemalan bourgeoisie...
...Nor do they utilize Guatemalan resources as fully as possible: particularly in the more sophisticated sectors (e.g., drug and chemical), U.S.-based corporations import everything but the water and air used in mixing or assembling the components...
...military advisers to local army forces is higher for Guatemala than for any other Latin American country...
...E1 Grafico, February 2, 1972...
...5 IlS I29 REFERENCES 1. To mention only a few of the sources: David Wise and Thomas Ross, The Invisible Government (New York: Bantam, 1964), ch...
...Aid has been used as a reward to the Guatemalan government for following "correct" policies 6 or as an inducement for adopting such policies...
...Dwight David Eisenhower, Mandate for Change (New York: Doubleday, 1963...
...See, for example, Wall Street Journal, January 14, 1971...
...Pacification" has been a very expensive operation, costing more than $870,000 for 1971 alone, according to official figures (probably a low estimate...
...Coincidentally, at the beginning of February, 1972, the U.S...
...2 0 That support, both moral and material, was quick in coming...
...This continued resistance by the Guatemalan people no less than the horror of the situation itself and the enormity of U.S...
...The argument a7ainst is that after 14 years, on all the evi_nce, the teaching hasn't been absorbed...
...3. Ibid., p. 88a...
...of articles in Chicago Daily News, December, 1966...
...Subversion: Guatemala, 1954," Science and Society, Summer, 1971, p. 150...
...What is important to understand is that the fall-out from the events of 1954 has been getting thicker...
...Many feel that international opinion, particularly in the U.S...
...This is an especially sensitive point in Guatemala, since the Arana regime and AID have been spending millions of dollars to promote tourism...
...dominated multilateral organizations, mainly the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank...
...Related to all this is the fact that the Guatemalan police operate without any effective political or judicial estraints...They receive their political direction from very hard-line right-wingers who have been itching for a confrontation with students...
...Slaughter in Guatemala," New York Review of Books.(My 20 1971...
...And finally, various aid programs have been25 designed and used to service the special needs of U.S.based corporations (e.g...
...Therefore, be it resolved that, as the principal organization of U.S...
...By early 1972 there was evidence that these groups were consolidating their ties with similar rightist groups in other Central American nations...
...Georgie Anne Geyer, serie...
...economic assistance program-specifically the $360 million in economic aid funds since 1954, channelled not only through the U.S...
...to apply pressure, at least regarding the (crucial) U.S...
...Agency for International Development but also through U.S...
...government...
...This pattern began with the witch-hunt of 1954 following the ouster of Arbenz, during which at least 9000 workers, peasants and members of the political oppoation were arbitrarily imprisoned and tortnred scores of peasants were murdered outright, and all forms of popular and 1l r a on we destroyed...
...others because of their location (Panama with its Canal...
...And even those who have never been there have read enough about Guatemala in the U.S...
...In a macabre "transfer of technology " from Vietnam, napalm, radar detection devices, and other sophisticated hardware were used in the 1966-68 counter-insurgency campaign...
...Since this situation, which has made Guatemala the focus of international concern, has been well documented elsewhere, 8 we need not present here another catalogue of horrors...
...Arana actively used these groups in his 1966-68 operations in Zacapa...
...THE ARANA REGIME The preceding summary provides the backdrop for the events of the past year and a half, under the regime of Col...
...Strict "self-censorship" of the press and radio was in effect after November, 1970...
...In fact, it is in relation to the international press that some of the principal weak spots and contradictions of that government become evident...
...Guatemalan authorities were likely taking advantage of the long-standing dispute with Britain over the status of British Honduras to whip up Guatemalan nationalism and distract public attention from the country's internal problems...
...Certainly it is far more than the offical figures of $4.2 million for public safety since the late 1950's, and an average of $1.5 million (but up to $3 million) annually of military assistance, not counting arms sales...
...but these were closed to the public, were restricted to two official witnesses (from the State Department and the Pentagon), and in the end U.S...
...Miami Herald, July 17, 1970...
...In January, 1972, the families of 90 of the poorest "disappeared" victims claimed they had exhausted their resources, and appealed for intervention and assistance by the Papal Nuncio...
...economic and military "aid" programs...
...Not only do these groups operatewith impunity and free of government interference...
...At its December, 1971 meeting, the Latin American Studies Association, the leading organization of U.S...
...at the time, the largest landowner in the country), the fairly predictable result was an intense U.S.-led campaign charging the Arbenz government with Communist infiltration and culminating in the ouster of Arbenz in June, 1954...
...has been the ultimate guarantor of the "Counter-Revolution" since 1954...
...tool a direct hand there and brought to bear the full weight of the counter-insurgency technology developed in Vietnam...
...The full extent of U.S...
...Luis Alfredo Alrango in Papel Tusa forces trained in Vietnam were sent to Guatemala (or vice versa): numerous visitors to Guatemala, and even Guatemalan police officials, have confirmed te presence and combat role of Green Berets...
...And that LASA hereby instructs its Government Relations Committee to further investigate this situation and to keep its members informed...
...Clearly the Arana regime cannot tolerate international publicity about the true situation in Guatemala...
...Nevertheless, while some individuals and groups within the petty bourgeoisie have been targets of the Right, the real brunt of the violence has been borne by the working class and peasants...
...A new police academy is being constructed with $410,000 of AID funds...
...N.W., Washington D.C...
...In addition they are generally known to have their stronghold in the offical forces of "law and order," the military and the police 1 2 -both of which have received extensive and'ever-increasing assistance from the U.S...
...high officials in the government tourist agency claim that tourists actually like seeing police armed with machine guns: "it makes them feel secure...
...The direct role of the U.S...
...and Whereas this continual violation of human rights in Guatemala has been condemned by the O.A.S...
...an additional $378,000 in AID public safety funds has gone for police vehicles and equipment...
...Guatemala first entered the American cold-war consciousness in the early 1950's, when two nationalist, reformist, but clearly capitalist regimes attempted to modernize and equalize the country's neocolonial social and economic structure...
...The Nixon Administration has lost no opportunity to indicate its approval and hospitality...
...Donn Munson, "America's Top-Secret Jungle War," Saga, November, 1967...
...1 5 at present 1.2% of all workers are unionized...
...In the Senate, the Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs planned hearings for early 1972, but cancelled them...
...in Guatemala since 1954 has been another phenomenon, equally necessary to enforce the Counter-Revolution: institutionalized rightist/official terror...
...Initially this was justified as essential to the government's counter-insurgency effort...
...Other protesting voices have also been silenced...
...Certainly the ixon Administration has gone beyond the call of protocol.and duty in honoring the most reactionary political forces in Guatemala...
...Green Berets and other advisers and combat I saw them bury a dead child in a cardboard box (This is true, and I don't forget it) On the box there was a stamp: "General Electric Company...
...investment increased greatly, and spread from the three previously existing enclaves (United Fruit, the International Railways of Central America [a United Fruit subsidiary], and Electric Bond and Share) to penetrate all sectors of the economy...
...government officials refused to allow the hearings to be printed up for public distribution...
...firms and their subsidiaries in Panama and the Bahamas...
...and in 1955, under direct orders from President Eisenhower, the World Bank had to violate its own policy of not lending to nations which are delinquent in debt repayments (as Guatemala was) by making an $18.2 million loan for highway construction in Guatemala, as a reward to Castillo Armas for overthrowing Arbenz and adopting "correct" policies...
...New York Times...
...Luis Cardoza y Aragon, La Revoluci6n Guatemalteca (Mexico: Cuadernos Americanos, 1955...
...and Whereas the brunt of this terror has fallen heavily on university professors and students...
...in Guatemala since 1954...
...and Whereas it is impossible to ignore the complicity of the U.S...
...1971,qose Luis Balcarcel, "Critlicasde a Situacion Critic-de Guatemala," Cuadernos Americanos, January-February, 1971...
...Particularly during the 1960's, U.S...
...role in enforcing the Counter-Revolution in Guatemala...
...Most controversial has been the concession for a $250 million investment (by far the country's largest) by the International Nickel Cc...
...Progress is our Best Product...
...To the peasants, however, death by violence is nothing new...
...Nevertheless, Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff aide, Pat Holt, visited Guatemala in the fall of 1971 for the Committee, and wrote up a staff memorandum...
...In subsequent years the politics of protecting the interests of the Guatemalan bourgeoisie and foreign investors has required a more or less constant level of rightist/offical violence...
...1 1 The overwhelming majority of the political assassinations have been carried out by right-win7 terrorist groups with such ominous names as ANO Blanca (White Hand") and Oo por Oo ("An Eye for an Eye...
...The 12,000 students of the University of San Carlos staged a university-wide strike during the 1971 state of siege...
...Guatemalan officials were so enraged about the article that they claimed it was a reprisal by the New York Times against Guatemala because the Guatemalan Government had refused to buy ads in the New York Times annual supplement on Latin America...
...academics and scholars on Latin America, on December 4, 1971, at the business meeting of the Association's third convention in Austin, Texas: Whereas the state of semi-offical and official rightist terror in Guatemala has reached unprecedented proportions...
...9 (A "disappearance" in Guatemala is generally equivalent to a death: most of those who disappear are found dead, weeks or months later, their bodies often bearing marks of torture...
...the presence of anti-guerrilla forces gave rise to reports in January, 1972 of a Guatemalan' mobilization of troops along that border, and to a British display of force to deter any moves by Guatemala (Los Angeles Times, January 28, 1972...
...As in the case with AID public safety, the military assistance program carries a political price...
...El Grafico, January 19, 1972...
...These pressures from the U.S...
...The Guatemalan correspondent for Time magazine was subjected to considerable harrassment after a mildly critical article appeared in that magazine...
...2 4 Finally, the American and international press has (at times unwittingly) played an important role...
...When this law was applied to the U.S.-owned United Fruit Co...
...through the AID investment guarantee program, through easy credit to the corporations, through special conditions attached to loans giving preference to US...
...If implemented as planned, the INCO investment will greatly alter Guatemala's economy and ecology, draining the nation's resources, violating some of its laws, and bringing dubious long-range balance of payments and tax benefits to the country...
...Once again, the Guatemalan armed forces were fully mobilized, and coordinated their efforts with those of Mexican troops, to track down the guerrillas...
...Guerrillas were also said to be operating near Guatemala's border with British Honduras...
...9. El Grafico, December 31, 1971 and January 3, 1972...
...corporate giants (including General Mills, Pillsbury, Purina, Coca Cola, C.P.C...
...Even before he took office, Arana was granted a secret interview with Vice President Agnew in Washington, during which Arana is said to have obtained direct assurances of continuing U.S...
...This chronic intervention has occurred primarily through U.S...
...appear to have their effects in a country as weak as Guatemala...
...And that LASA calls for a full investigation of this situation, through public hearings by the relevant U.S...
...2 2 Also in the fall of 1971, a group of American citizens headed by the Ecumenical Program for InterAmerican Communication and Action held citizens' hearings on Guatemala...
...Law and order" in the countryside is indistinguishable from rightist terror, which is unmistakeably the terror of the bourgeoisie...
...In order to make the Counter-Revolution of 1954 stick, continual and daily intervention by the U.S...
...And a few because of the actions of their people at a particular moment in history...
...During 1971, according to the Guatemalan daily newspaper, E Grafico, there were 959 political assassinations, 171 kidnappings, and 194 "disappearances...
...But on the other hand, the press has created certain pressures on the Arana regime...
...2. Gert Rosenthal, "The Role of Private Foreign Investment in the Development of the Central American Common Market" (Guatemala: draft, 1971), p. 89...
...William Frey -- an American -- was expelled from Guatemala in October, 1971, after he joined other religious leaders in deploring the violence and calling for an end to the state of siege...
...counter-insurgency assistance has been questioned by the staff aide of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who visited Guatemala in October, 1971: The argument in favor of the public safety program in Guatemala is that if we don't teach the cops to be good, who will...
...See, for example, statements by Costa Rican Foreign Minister Facio, reprinted in El Grifico, January 15, 1972...
...private investment...
...The government's supposed objective of "pacification" has not been achieved...
...An eminent Episcopal Bishop, Rt...
...governments, one might expect at least that they would have been able to definitely and permanently smash the resistance...
...American "advisors", train Guatemalan soldiers who bear U.S.-supplied machine guns, rifles, communications equipment, etc...
...More ominously, this has been the setting for a steady stream of arbitrary arrests and political assassinations...
...An important mechanism for insuring these and other Guatemalan policies favorable to foreign investors has been the U.S...
...Guillermo Torriello, La Batalla de Guatemala (Mexico: Cuadernos Americanos, 1955...
...out of these hearings came a report on "Political Violence in Guatemala...
...Senate and House Committees...
...A high proportion of profits (45.5% in 1968) is remitted to the parent corporations abroad...
...Property-owners, both urban and rural, have taken advantage of the frequent states of siege to get rid of troublesome labor organizers...
...1 6 In addition to overt force, the law has consistently been used to deprive peasants of their rights...
...has een necessary...
...support...
...6. For example: the Ydigoras government (1958-1963) was generously rewarded for cooperating in the Bay of Pigs invasion (providing a training base for the Cuban exiles...
...2 3 Another group of American citizens, the American Friends of Guatemala, provides information to interested Americans about the situation in Guatemala...
...Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC), Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs, "Guatemala and the Dominican Republic: A Staff Memorandum," (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1971), pp...
...The pressures for change, both internal and external, are building up, while the safety valves are being closed off...
...And over the years since 1954, in the face of the ban on overt political demonstrations, organizing and propaganda activities, a generalized culture of resistance has evolved, using the oral media of popular songs, myths, and jokes to ridicule or criticize...
...this campaign left a toll of thousands of dead peasants-estimates range from 3,000 to 8,000--many of them uninvolved in politics...
...Here too it was vigorously pursued by offical forces, and during the 1971 state of siege, greatly reduced its overt operations...
...But this "breathing space" is only relative...
...The effects of private foreign investment have been adverse for Guatemala...
...Even the mass newspapers may carry ridicule or criticism, but always disguised as reportage...
...Nor is Frey the first American cleric to be moved to action by26 conditions in Guatemala: in late 1967 several American priests and nuns in the Catholic Maryknoll order were expelled for collaborating with a Christian guerrilla movement...
...Thus the State Department was understandably upset when rumors began to circulate about Arana's planned visit to Alabama Governor George Wallace in October, 1971, during which the two leaders would discuss their mutual problems of being misunderstood (!) on the issue of law and order...
...1 8 torture methods strikingly sim i lar to those used by Green Berets in Vietnam are being used by the Guatemalan security forces Despite this all-out effort, the effectiveness of U.S...
...miax ordon, "A Case History of U.S...
...20011...
...8. The daily press is one of the best sources of documentation...
...Policy has been influenced by the presence of aid "experts" or advisors, sent in to supervise or directly administer aid projects (and hence all related policies) from within Guatemalan government agencies and ministries...
...January 16, 1972...
...private investment and official U.S...
...Susanne Bodenhetar'Insfid-e'"a a of Siege Leg zed Mur er n Guatemala," Ramparts, June...
...1 4 The labor movement has been decimated: its ranks declined, according to the U.S...
...Innumerable students have been assassinated openly or have "disappeared," never to be heard from again...
...Carlos Castillo Armas, has been well documented...
...Chief of the Southern Command, General George Underwood, just happened to make a "good will" visit to Guatemala (El Grafico, February 2, 1972...
...intervention in Guatemala, has profoundlyaffected the consciousness of Americans, particularly those who have been there...
...For examples, see Thomas and Marjorie Melville, Guatemala: The Politics of Land Ownership (New York: Free Press, 1971...
...During the nine years from 1963 through 1971 (108 months), Guatemala spent 48 months, or nearly half, under states of siege, all of which have entailed the abrogation of constitutional guarantees and liberties...
...see also Comite'pro Derechos Humanos, E1 Terror en Guatemala (Guatemala: 1967...
...Washington Post, July 17, 1970...
...7. See section on "Aid and Comfort to the Corporations," in NACLA's Yanqui Dollar, for more details on the ways in which foreign aid programs are used by the multinational corporations for their own benefit...
...in this repression, through its support of the Arana regime, and most particularly through its police and military assistance programs...
...The Inter- American Affairs Subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee held hearings on Guatemala in September, 1971...
...Send all information, inquiries, and contributions to: American Friends of Guatemala, P.O...
...Alan Coher., The Economy of Guatemela, 1950-1965 (Guatemala: draft, 1969), II, 14...
...In reality, the rightist/official violence is not an assertion of authority, but a holding action, an operation of weakness and desperation, a reminder that time is on the side of the people...
...q I - I27 Given the extraordinary "pacification' efforts of the Guatemalan and U.S...
...4. Unemployment is growing at a particularly rapid pace in the cities, where new industry might have been expected to absorb the growing labor force...
...Carlos Arana Osorio...
...5. For more details, see W. Carter and Fred Goff, "Nickel Imperialism," NACLA Newsletter, January, 1971, pp.1-8...
...After four deceptively tranquil months in power, Arana declared a state of siege on November 13, 1970, thereby suspending all constitutional guarantees and prohibiting all political activity...
...Finally, in February, 1972, the White House invited to breakfast Mario Sandoval Alarcon, President of the Guatemalan Congress, closely linked to rightist terrorist groups, and the fascist alter-ego of the Arana regime...
...El Grafico, December 31, 1971...
...The ratio of U.S...
...Despite this serious setback, the guerrilla movement was by no means dead: after 1968 it shifted its focus of operations to the cities, particularly the capital...
...As Frey himself points out, he was fortunate that Guatemalan officials decided to punish him with expulsion, rather than assassination...
...fir s, for construction or engineering contracts, etc...
...The logic of this process, known as the Guatemalan "Revolution" of 1944-1954, led the government of Jacob Arbenz to adopt a (by today's standards, moderate) agrarian reform bill in 1952, and subsequently to implement this law by expropriating (with compensation) unused land holdings of more than 223 acres, and redistributing these to landless peasants...
...1 0 The situation was so extreme that the residents of the district surrounding the Guatemala City Morgue petitioned for its removal, since the stench from the many cadavers brought there daily was becoming a health hazard...
...Box 2283, Station A, Berkeley, California 94702...
...Thus for example a series of articles in The Washington Post in March, 1971, which documented the terror, evoked strong rebuttals by the Guatemalan Ambassador in Washington and other officals...
...the repression of the CounterRevolution is merely an extension of the institutionalized, daily violence of Guatemalan life from hunger, disease, and infant mortality...
...the visit was mysteriously cancelled at the last minute...
...and Whereas, moreover, the Arana regime has implicitly and explicitly threatened the autonomy of the national University of San Carlos...
...3 In most cases foreign corporations have not played the "innovative" role of opening up new fields, but rather have moved into traditional fields, displacing and ruining smaller locally-owned firms...
...On the one hand, on many occasions the international press has seriously distorted the situation in Guatemala (especially regarding the guerrillas and the effects of foreign investment, foreign aid, etc...
...Furthermore, the United States is politically identified with police terrorism...
...Susanne Jonas Bodenheimer 1* VENiER 0 mIORIR% * * GUATEmLA URTEIIIRII UInrlER II mnRIR -I VENCER mmNii HIN GUTEmALIRe uEnREm On Terror in Guatemala The following resolution, On Terror in Guatemala, was adopted by the Latin American Studies Association, the leading professional organization of U.S...
...The stop-gap measures of the Alliance for Progress have served as an alternative rather than an incentive to real development, insofar as they attempt to relieve the immediate pressures for thoroughgoing change, and insofar as they provide funds for public expenditures which would otherwise have to come from taxing the upper class...
...When the 12,000 students at the University of San Carlos went on general strike in October, 1971, to protest the violence and demand an end to the state of siege, the government's response was a thinly veiled threat of military intervention and termination of the University's traditional automony...
...A recent article in The New York Times Sunday travel section entitled "How Eddie, Marcia and I Smuggled Pickled Frogs through Guatemala--and Lived to Tell All," RDbe e ox IwR TRA VEL AND RESORTS-MID-WINTER VACATIONS How Eddie, Marcia and I Smuggled Pickled Frogs Through GuatemalaAnd Lived to Tell All r28 became the focus of a national furor because of its remarks about gun-waving guards, an excruciating encounter with customs officials, "grizzly stories" of assass nations by guerrillas, and skinny, underfed dogs...
...Between 1950 and 1962, the employable urban population increased seven times faster than the number of urban employed...
...The Guatemalan governments have attempted to do this, through a series of incentives and tax holidays (e.g., in the Industrial Promotion Law), unrestricted profit remittances, and other special privileges for foreign investors...
...1 9 Aside from the extensive military and police assistance programs, the Nixon Administration has bent over backwards to demonstrate its solidarity with the Arana regime...
...It is the countless number of unnamed peasants which brings the death toll of the rightist terror to an estimated 7,000 from 1966 to 1970 and acounts for the bulk of the nearly 1,000 assassinations during 1971 (although a precise "body count" is impossible to obtain...
...And that LASA calls for a cut-off of all U.S...
...For example, at least seven U.S...
...and other publications by the Facultad de Ciencias Economicas of the University of San Carlos...
...The statistics are staggering...
...On the countrary, the level of violence has risen markedly, and there have been thousands of "unexplained" political assassinations during this year of "pacification...
...This document can be obtained by writing to EPICA, 1500 Farragut St...
...press and Congress, and in the condemnation by even the timid and respectable Organization of American States, was a principal factor in forcing Arana to lift the state of siege on November 22, 1971...
...In fact, they have not managed to do so...
...El Grafico, January 21, 1972...
...On balance, it seems that AID public safety has cost the United States more in political terms than it has gained in improved Guatemalan police efficiency...
...1 3 2rlcon ltinental Much of the terror has been directed against university professors and students and other professionals, as well as the national University of San Carlos itself...
...5 If foreign private investment has been the key to the strategy for "economic growth" since 1954, the main imperative for public policy has been to maintain in Guatemala a "favorable investment climate," one which would attract foreign corporations to the country...
...also various articles in Economia (published by University of San Carlos, Instituto de Investigaciones Econdmicas y Sociaes), #27, #28...
...The cornerstone of the Counter-Revolutionary strategy has been foreign (U.S...
...AID-donated paddy wagons have been used to patrol the streets day and night, providing a psychological deterrent to political activity of any sort...
...Richard Adams, Crucifixion by Power (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1970), p. 425...
...Aside from the American clerics mentioned above (the Maryknoll priests and nuns and Bishop Frey), thousands of young Americans going to Guatemala with the Peace Corps or other volunteer programs, to study, or even as tourists, have seen in Guatemala (as in the Dominican Republic) a graphic picture of the fruits of U.S...
...Bureau of Labor Statistics, from over 100,000 members under Arbenz to 16.000 by 1962, and has remained at that low level...
...This jolt of their consciousness has led certain sectors within the U.S...
...Such is the case of Cuba, the Dominican Republic--and Guatemala...
...has been most generous with its military and police assistance...
...Closely related to the growing role of the U.S...
...expenditures on training and equipping the Guatemalan military and police is impossible to determine without access to classified information...
...1 As the primary force behind the overthrow of the Guatemalan "Revolution," the U.S...
...This culture of resistance is a partial substitute for politics, in unifying the people and breaking down the isolation and alienation created by the terror...
...have bought out Guatemalan food industries...
...press to be aware of the brutality there, and of the continuing resistance by the Guatemalan people...
...intervention...
...Arana is generally known as the "butcher of Zacapa," for his role in directing the brutal anti-guerrilla campaign of 1966-68 in Zacapa...
...Nevertheless, even during this most intense offical crackdown, the guerrillas managed to pull off several important kidnappings (including that of Roberto Alejos Arzu, a leading banker and businessman, whom they held for four months, and whom 2,000 police and military forces were unable to find...
...Miami Herald, January 28, 1972...
...But it soon became clear that the point was not to eliminate the revolutionary guerrilla forces, but rather to eliminate all existing or potential political opposition, and to terrorize the population into silence and compliance...
...the terror continues...
...based in Canada but 60% U.S.-owned and run from Wall Street...
...2 1 Aside from the guerrillas, other forms of resistance have also remained alive, even under these most difficult circumstances...
Vol. 6 • February 1972 • No. 2
