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Are You Willing To Guatemala

By VVAW

The men were first castrated, then their eyes were put out with needles. Their hands tied behind their backs, they were thrown on top of one another and the pile was then doused with gasoline and set afire. The women were raped. Then they were forced to watch as their children had their bellies cleaved with machetes and were left to agonize, screaming, on the ground. One mother was forced to kiss her baby's head which was presented to her on the end of bayonet. Another group of children were ordered to play and, as they attempted to obey, grenades were thrown into their midst. Almost mercifully, the women, having witnessed the annihilation of their families, were dragged into the church which was then set on fire. Anyone attempting to escape was dismembered with machetes.

Unfortunately, this is not fiction. The torments are real. They are happening today. And, perhaps most important for us, the U.S. is supporting the slaughter.

The victims of repression in Guatemala today are the Indians, descendants of the Mayas, who no live largely in the northern and western departments (states) of Guatemala. Their persecutors have for decades been the military rulers of the County Gen. Effraim Rios Montt.

Guatemala lives today under a state of siege. The constitution has been suspended, the press censored, public meetings prohibited. The army and paramilitary death squads have been ordered to stop their killings and kidnappings in the capital, Guatemala City. The appearance then, is one of relative calm. The diplomatic corps and capital residents speak of a return to quitter times. But in the isolated rural areas, the "ranchos" and "aldeas" of El Quiche, Solala, San Marcos, and Huehuetenango, a full-fledged program of extermination of the Indians is taking place. The massacres and wholesale destruction of indian villages began in earnest in June of this year. Refugees from Guatemala, survivors of army attacks on their villages, tell of the troops arriving in helicopters. The soldiers then b urn houses and crops, kill livestock and finally torture and kill any people who have remained behind. Some people don't flee because of age or sickness; others remain because of their faith in god and in the soldiers; still others are simply caught by surprise. All are eventually killed, usually without the use of a bullet.

Many indian families, stripped of all they own, are forced to survive somehow in the forests of the Guatemalan highlands. Those who live near the border with Mexico hide by day and walk at night, going days without food, to reach the relative safety of Chiapas, a southern Mexican border state. They are arriving now by the thousands. Widows will come with from three to nine children. Men will come, traumatized by the memories of their wives and children being tortured to death. In Mexico, they have found a welcome among the poor farmers of Chiapas. But as the refugees come in increasing numbers, the resources of the region, already severely taxed, begin to give out and new tensions arise.

In the U.S. really supporting the present military government in Guatemala? Consider:

• Congress approved $250,000 for military training aid to Guatemala this past summer.
• President Reagan will soon ask Congress for $4 million to buy the junta replacement parts for helicopters.
• Under President Carter, arms sales to Guatemala were banned because of massive human rights violations. Our State Department is now looking into ways to lend weapons to the junta in order to get around the weapons' sales ban.
• The State Department, which says it's getting reports of an "improved" human rights situation in Guatemala wants the Treasury Department to OK an $18 million loan as part of a $30 million rural telephone project. The fact that such a project will only facilitate the army's communication and by extension, the increased slaughter of innocent people, isn't going to deter the State Department.

The response of the Guatemalan people to decades of repression and centuries of exploitation (by the same class of large land-holders and businessmen that pushed El Salvador into a civil war) has finally become clear. With no possibility of making even minimal changes in the existing social structure, the people have organized to defend themselves.

At one level this means forming committees for village self-defense. On another level, a coalition of guerrilla groups is active, harassing and attacking the military convoys and installations. At a third level, exiled Guatemalans are attempting to focus international attention on the suffering of their people.

A new Guatemala is being born. The process is a terribly painful one, accompanied by grave physical and psychological trauma. But the people are confident in their eventual triumph. Further U.S. military or economic aid to Guatemala will only prolong the agony of the people. When you hear Reagan asking for aid so that Guatemala's junta can fight the "communist subversives," think of the nine-month old baby in Guatemala who was found, dead, with a piece of her mother's nipple still in her mouth. Then write your representatives in Congress to demand that no aid whatever be sent to the Guatemalan junta.




John B Elder

(The article on Guatemala is written by a VVAW member from San Antonio, TX, who spent time during the summer at the refugee camps in Chiapas, Mexico.)

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