5, September 2015 Guatemala
In a stunning victory for people power, Guatemala’s, President,
Otto Pérez Molina was forced to resign and subsequently jailed on charges of
corruption bowing to massive popular protests. Guatemala has been in a virtual
lockdown for decades under a brutal military junta. Turning back the pages of
history reveals a long struggle against tyranny by courageous activists led by
Mayan Rigoberta Menchú whose lawsuits helped bring down former U.S.-backed
dictator, Efraín Ríos Montt for his role in the killings of more than 1,700
Ixil Mayan people. Menchú lost her father, mother and two brothers during the
Guatemalan genocide. She won the Nobel Peace Prize for her tireless work on
behalf of Guatemala’s indigenous population. Now Menchú is calling for Pérez
Molina to be tried for his role in the massacres of thousands of civilians the
El Quiché region in the 1980s. Using wire taps, a new and emerging independent
judiciary has charged Molina with massive fraud pilfering tens of millions from
the state treasury. For more than 50 years, ordinary citizens have been in
mortal fear of the military especially members of the specialized forces called
the Kaibiles, an elite corps whose mission was to stifle dissent. All of these
Special Forces were trained at the US School of the Americas. Another dark stain on US foreign policy going
back many decades.
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