We met today with the group of forensic archeologists (LA FUNDACION DE ANTROPOLOGIA FORENSE DE GUATEMLA) that have been systematically digging up mass burial sites where Mayan villagers had been massacred by the Guatemalan Army. So far they have exhumed 3,200 bodies from 500 different sites. An estimated 200,000 Guatemalans were killed during the fighting which lasted from 1960 to 1996. A government investigation that was part of the peace agreement found that 93 percent of the attrocities were committed by the Army.
The worst of the killing took place between 1978 and 1984 when the Army launched a scorched earth campaign against the Mayan villages in the central highlands where most of the guerilla activity was occurring. The army burned down over 600 villages, destroyed the crops and pursued those who escaped into the mountains.
When word of the attrocities first came out President Carter instituted an arms embargo against Guatemala. Reagan attempted to get it repealed but could not get Congress to go along, so his administration arranged for arms shipments from third countries such as Israel. Reagan’s comment at the time was that Guatemalan President Rios Mont was getting a “bum rap.”
A small group of Guatemalan lawyers has attempted to bring cases of genicide in the courts. So far one case was successfully prosecuted but only three very low level soldiers were convicted. Subsequently all of the commanders on the scene of that massacre were found with a bullet in their head. Somebody is covering their tracks.
The government prosecutor in these cases has since been withdrawn and no new one appointed; it doesn’t look like one will be.
The lawyers are considering bringing cases of genocide in the Inter-American Court of Justice.
This is something that may make U.S. officials nervous since all of the Army leaders involved in this genocide were trained at the School of the Americas, run by the U.S. army, and since, inlike the World Court, the U.S. is still a member of the Inter-American Court.
These are brave people doing this work. All of them have recieved death threats. They deserve our solidarity.