Tales of Reagan’s Guatemala Genocide
Tales of Reagan’s Guatemala Genocide
April 16, 2013
Exclusive: Guatemala is finally putting ex-dictator Efrain Rios Montt on trial for genocide in the extermination of hundreds of Mayan villages in the 1980s, but Ronald Reagan remains an American icon despite new evidence of his complicity in this historic crime, reports Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
The first month of the genocide trial of former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt has elicited chilling testimony from Mayan survivors who – as children – watched their families slaughtered by a right-wing military that was supported and supplied by U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
As the New York Times reportedon Monday, “In the tortured logic of military planning documents conceived under Mr. Ríos Montt’s 17-month rule during 1982 and 1983, the entire Mayan Ixil population was a military target, children included. Officers wrote that the leftist guerrillas fighting the government had succeeded in indoctrinating the impoverished Ixils and reached ‘100 percent support.’”
So, everyone was targeted in these scorched-earth campaigns that eradicated more than 600 Indian villages in the Guatemalan highlands. But this genocide was not simply the result of a twisted anticommunist ideology that dominated the Guatemalan military and political elites. This genocide also was endorsed by the Reagan administration.
A document that I discovered recently in the archives of the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California, revealed that Reagan and his national security team in 1981 agreed to supply military aid to the brutal right-wing regime in Guatemala to pursue the goal of exterminating not only “Marxist guerrillas” but people associated with their “civilian support mechanisms.”
More:
http://consortiumnews.com/2013/04/16/grichilling-tales-of-reagans-guatemala-genocide/
= new reply since forum marked as read
Guatemala: photos from the Rios Montt genocide tribunal
Xeni Jardin at 6:42 am Thu, Apr 11
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An Ixil Maya woman assists another witness from her community with "Beats by
Dr. Dre" headphones supplied by the court for translation audio from Spanish to Ixil.
Rios Montt enters the courtroom with his daughter, Zury Rios, who is a prominent political
and social figure here in Guatemala. Her husband is former US congressman Jerry Weller. [/font][/center]
Posted 11/21/2004 11:19 AM
Illinois congressman weds daughter of former dictator
ANTIGUA, Guatemala (AP) — They met during a trade mission, and despite controversy over their engagement, U.S. Rep. Jerry Weller of Illinois and the outspoken daughter of former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt tied the knot Saturday in a civil ceremony.
About 300 people — including Rios Montt — attended the wedding of the Republican congressman from central Illinois and Zury Rios Sosa, a 36-year-old Guatemalan senator. Security was tight as the two exchanged wedding vows at a mansion belonging to the former dictator.
Rios Sosa wore a creamed-colored, strapless dress, Weller a black suit. U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala John Hamilton also attended.
A large security team watched the home, which also was encircled by a high stone wall topped by electrified wire, in this colonial mountain town popular with tourists.
Weller's opponents criticized the engagement because Rios Montt, a retired general who seized control of Guatemala for 18 months in 1982-83, is accused of leading one of the bloodiest campaigns in the nation's 36-year civil war, which killed 200,000 people.
More:
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-11-21-congressman-guatemalan-wed_x.htm
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Republican Rep. Jerry Weller & Zury Rios
Efrain Rios-Montt, friend, supporter Ronald Reagan[/center]
Wikipedia, Jerry Weller
~snip~
Properties in Nicaragua
On October 25, 2006, the Chicago Reader reported that Weller had disclosed three parcels of land he owned in Nicaragua on his financial disclosure forms: one purchased in 2002, one purchased in April 2004, and one purchased in December 2005. The newspaper also reported that it had obtained notarized bills of sale for three more lots owned by Weller that had never been listed on his forms: a lot sold in February 2005, a lot purchased in March 2005, and lot purchased in April 2005. The failure to properly disclosure property ownership is a violation of the Ethics in Government Act and the False Statements Accountability Act of 1996.
Weller's lawyer said that he couldn’t comment because of the attorney-client privilege.[20] Weller's campaign manager said Weller "does not own three more parcels in Nicaragua. He does not own six parcels in Nicaragua. He has filed his disclosure for everything that he owns."[21]
On September 7, 2007, the Chicago Tribune disclosed the results of their own investigation into his land deals, including discrepancies on declared prices and numbers of transactions, centered in the Playa Coco resort area. For example, Weller listed only one Nicaraguan property purchase on his 2005 disclosure form, but property records in Nicaragua showed that he bought or sold at least eight pieces of land.[22]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Weller
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Here's something strange, also:
Weller under siege, may not run
Wednesday, Sep 19, 2007
~snip~
Either way, Weller will have to face questions about the Nicaraguan land deals and whether he reported or hid them on his congressional disclosure forms. Then there’s the Central America Free Trade Agreement vote that may have benefitted him directly and the questions that arise every election cycle about where he really lives - Morris, D.C. or Guatemala. He is scheduled to address the Joliet Chamber of Commerce later this week. Will he make a big announcement? Address the media? Or slink away in his Jaguar without taking questions?
* Meanwhile, the news just gets worse for Weller…
Rep. Jerry Weller (R-Ill.) has landed on a Washington watchdog group’s list of the “22 most corrupt” members of Congress – and, separately, been subpoenaed in a criminal case linked to disgraced former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham of California.
The “most corrupt” list, an annual compilation of the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, includes several congressmen and senators reportedly under investigation for ethical issues, including Reps. John Doolittle (R-Calif.), Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.) and William Jefferson (D-La.) and Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska).
Weller makes the list, the group said, for a host of ethical questions, including his failure to report some Nicaraguan land deals on his financial disclosure form. The group also alleges Weller appears to have used his position to boost interests in Puerto Rico and Belize in exchange for campaign contributions.
More:
http://capitolfax.com/2007/09/19/weller-under-siege-may-not-run/
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I'll bet he's staying in Guatemala right now, with his wife while his father-in-law is on trial for genocide.
This Republican is slimier than some of them!
