NYT: COBÁN, Guatemala — Now, all across these highlands once ravaged by a 36-year civil war, the region’s bloodiest anti-Communist conflict, Guatemalans are demanding the unthinkable — a strong military back in their communities.

RA: :  It was not an “anti-communist” conflict in Guatemala.  It was a campaign of State repression and genocide against its own, majority Mayan, mainly unarmed population, to keep in place an unjust economic development model.

There is a presumption that Guatemala is a democratic country, as opposed to being a country characterized by historic and on-going racism, exploitation and poverty, violence and repression, impunity for the powerful sectors and a fundamental lack of democracy.

NYT: That is how desperate this country has become as gangs and Mexican drug cartels run fever-wild, capturing territory and corrupting institutions so that Guatemala will remain a safe haven for cocaine, guns, money laundering and new recruits.

RA:  While it is true that there has been a serious and devastating growth in gangs and drug cartels - since the 1996 “peace accords”, these are not the underlying source or cause of the repression and violence, impunity and a fundamental lack of democracy and rule of law.  The wealthy elites (oligarchy, to be more precise) and the military remain the underlying causes and sources – and, indeed, direct beneficiaries - of the repression and violence, impunity and a fundamental lack of democracy and rule of law.  Furthermore, sectors of the oligarchy and military initiated, and are directly involved with, drug trafficking and other sectors of organized crime.]
  
NYT: Guatemala’s presidential election on Sunday could represent a turning point. The three top contenders have all called for a stronger, crime-fighting military, borrowing heavily from the Mexican model of attacking the drug cartels head-on, even though that strategy has claimed more than 40,000 lives without yielding peace.

RA:  There is really no hope that these elections will represent a turning point.  This is a mis-representation of the fundamental lack of real democracy in Guatemala, wherein the powerful sectors – oligarchy, military, police, organized crime – all commit crimes and human rights violations with close to complete impunity, while the majority population live in endemic conditions of exploitation and poverty. Sadly, but predictably, there is no reference – none at all – to the extensive role that numerous US administrations, including covert US agencies, have played over generations directly funding, arming, and politically supporting the Guatemalan military and oligarchy. It has been widely reported that the “Genocide General” himself, Otto Pérez Molina, was on the CIA payroll.

 It is shocking but not surprising that the journalist, Mr Cave, made no reference here to the very serious allegations against General Otto Perez Molina, that he is one of the intellectual and material authors of the genocide, as well as disappearances and torture.  Before Mr Cave’s trip to Guatemala, he was in communication with Annie Bird and Grahame Russell of Rights Action, and I sent him the Allegation Letter recently submitted formally to the United Nations, alleging Perez Molina’s participation in genocide, torture and disappearances, along with other background information.  See: http://rightsaction.org/articles/Letter_to_United_Nations_082411.html]

[The author is Co-Director of Rights Action.]