(or, How Did Genocide Happen in Our Backyard?)

1
Guatemala a human rights history
GUATEMALAA HUMAN RIGHTS HISTORY (PART 2)

• (or, How Did Genocide Happen in Our Backyard?)

2
Q. How does genocide happen?

• A. Black/white logic of Latin Americas war on
  terrorism
• entrenched racism and structures of ethnic
  exclusion
• genocide

3
(No Transcript)
4
First wave of war (1960-1970)

• Fought in eastern lowlands (and capital)
• Although state response involved massive force,
  it was (mostly) selectively applied
• Second wave of war (1975-1986)
• Fought in western highlands (and capital)
• Scorched earth tactics
• Goal to eliminate social world in which
  guerrillas were active

5
The massacres at Rio Negro

• 1975 plan to build hydroelectric dam on Chixoy
  River
• Project funded by World Bank, IADB
• Maya Achi communities of Rio Negro resisted
• Army organized civil patrol (PAC) in Xococ
• 1981-82 massacres of hundreds
• Development project went forward

6
Document 3

• declassified CIA cable from April 1981,
  describing how an Army patrol found evidence that
  residents of a village named Cocop supported the
  guerrillas, and therefore were forced to fire at
  anything that moved
• The Guatemalan authorities admitted that many
  civilians were killed in Cocob, many of whom
  undoubtedly were non-combattants.

7
Cocop, Guatemala, 2008 Exhumation and reburial of
50 of 76 victims of the April 16, 1981 massacre
8
Cocop, Guatemala, 2008 Reburial of 50 of 76
victims of the April 16, 1981 massacre
9
Document 4

• DCI Watch Committee Report, dated 5 February 1982
  
• (DCI Watch is a committee of the CIA)
• discusses Guatemalan militarys plans to
  sweep through an area where many indigenous
  peasants support the guerrilla, and acknowledging
  that it will be necessary to destroy a number of
  villages

10
Document 5

• Feb 1982 CIA cable
• Describes Army sweep through the same area
  discussed in document 4, noting that no major
  guerrilla forces had been found but that since
  the Army has concluded the entire Indian
  population is pro-guerrilla, the Army can be
  expected to give no quarter to combatants and
  non-combatants alike and the army has therefore
  destroyed a large number of guerrilla
  collaborators

11
Genocide

• Prior to this period, binary logic of youre
  either with us, or youre against us gt massive
  repression
• Turning point equation of indigenous identity
  with communism
• This is where massive repression became genocide
• 626 massacres
• many communities wiped off map
• idea was not to punish guerrillas, but to
  eliminate entire society which hid them

12
(No Transcript)
13
Genocide

• Attempt to eliminate a social world
• Stigmatization of indigenous dress, language
• Destruction of sacred sites
• Forced conscription
• Model villages
• According to CEH
• 83 victims Maya
• 93 of killings were by security forces or
  paramilitary
• 3 killings by guerrillas

14
Peace

• End of cold war, rise of human rights movement gt
• Awareness began to spread about what was
  happening
• International public opinion turned against
  Guatemalan government, encouraged peace process
• 1996 Guatemalan government and guerrillas signed
  peace accords

15
(No Transcript)
16
Human rights in Guatemala today

• Impunity No one has been convicted of ordering
  human rights crimes
• Those leading effort to change this continue to
  be threatened and killed today
• lawyers, witnesses, plaintiffs in human rights
  cases routinely killed
• Also, new struggles environmental justice,
  indigenous rights, security from common crime

17
Exhumations
18
Police Archives
19
(No Transcript)
20
Lessons?

• The Guatemalan genocide happened in the name of
  saving democracy from terrorism
• Some communities were killed in the name of
  economic development
• Tragic that in the struggle to defend
  democracy, promote development, profoundly
  antidemocratic mistakes were made

21
Is the US government partly responsible?

• To what extent did the US participate in the
  carnage?
• Military training, assistance some accounts of
  in-person participation
• In 1982, Pres. Reagan moved to reinstate military
  aid to the Guatemalan Army, said Guatemala
  struggle for democracy

• In 1997 Pres. Clinton formally apologized to
  Guatemala

22
The erroneous belief that the end justifies the
means converted Guatemala into a country of death
and sadness. It should be remembered, once and
for all, that there are no values superior to the
lives of human beings, and thereby superior to
the existence and well-being of an entire
national community. UN Commission for
Historical Clarification, 1999
23
Discerning patterns

• Similarities/differences with Southern Cone
  experiences?