'We Sent a Man to His Death': How the British Army Betrayed Its Own Informant to a Murderous Junta
'We Sent a Man to His Death': How the British Army Betrayed Its Own Informant to a Murderous Junta
By Phil Miller
August 2, 2016
Using papers found at the UK National Archives, VICE previously revealed the extent of cooperation between British forces and the murderous Guatemalan junta at the height of that country's 36-year long civil war. In 1983, Britain had a garrison of 1,500 soldiers stationed in neighbouring Belize. They were supposedly there to prevent a Guatemalan invasion of the former British colony, but our investigation showed how they ended up helping the regime of former president Rios Montt – currently awaiting trial for genocide – and hunted down Guatemalan rebels sheltering in Belize. They also shared intelligence about rebels with junta officers that had been linked to human rights abuses.
Following our investigation, a former Belizean spy who worked with the British has claimed that a rebel informant was handed over to the junta's forces, who later killed him. As the British passed him over, they played a recording of the rebel detailing massacres carried out by the Guatemalan government's forces, something which could have led to the informant's death.
“We sent a man to his death ”
Our investigation told how a British patrol to find rebel bases was guided by a 27-year-old Guatemalan, Pedro Barrera – a former rebel turned informant. Barrera failed to lead the patrol to any rebel bases, so he was interrogated by Belize police's special branch before being handed back to Guatemalan authorities, who went on to murder him.
A former Belizean special branch officer is claiming to be the interpreter for that patrol with Barrera. Commenting on the VICE investigation, the man said: "What I read there is what I did." The retired spy, who did not want to be named, told Belize's Amandala newspaper that, "Pedro Barrera wanted support – that we grant him refugee status in Belize to protect him and stay here, so he started to cooperate with us and he promised that he was going to show us a guerrilla camp."
The patrol was inserted into the jungle by a British "Gazelle" helicopter. When the patrol failed to find any guerrilla activity, the ex-spy claims Barrera started crying, begged for refugee status and offered to "share everything he knew about the Guatemalan army". British officers allegedly recorded as Barrera detailed Guatemalan army massacres of indigenous Maya people. When Barrera was handed into Guatemalan custody, the officer alleges that "the British played the recorded tape ... (and) upon hearing Barrera's accusations the faces of the Guatemalan officers contorted with anger".
More:
http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/spy-claims-britain-sent-man-to-his-death-in-guatemala
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