Before beginning this tale, I must call upon a muse to bless my humble quill. Perhaps Ms. Chiquita Banana will offer her services; she would seem an appropriate choice. Ah yes, I can feel her presence already. But I get ahead of myself. Let’s begin.
Guatemala, like just about every other country within an 800 mile radius of Christopher Columbus’s famed but mistaken landing, was birthed into the volatile, unforgiving world of colonialism.
Epidemics were introduced.
Natives were enslaved/conquered/hunted.
Great civilizations were toppled.
So began the Spanish presence here 500 years ago. But let’s fast-forward awhile, I promised this would be a short history.
In 1821 Guatemala shucked off the yolk of Spanish imperialism and gained its “formal” independence, although informally (i.e., realistically) nothing much had changed. The elite social-economic vacancies left in the Spanish wake were quickly filled by the meztizos, shifting the country’s hierarchy, but perpetuating the same colonial conditions (for more on this repetitive trend in Guatemalan history, the kind reader should refer to my upcoming novel: “Zero Sum Game: Guatemala in a Nutshell”) The only real difference being that now the country’s profits, rather than sailing their way across the Atlantic to take their final resting place in the Spanish treasury, instead took residence in the pockets of a few powerful families, eager to repress their partially indigenous ancestry and capitalize on their countries resources. It was through this window that American investors began to sink their teeth, and their trowels, into Guatemalan soil.
From this newly-independent state, Guatemala quickly plummeted into a hundred year stretch of dictatorial rule. The last (and perhaps worst) two dictators during this period, Manuel Cabrera (1898-1930) and Jorge Ubico (1930-1940) managed to surrender, almost entirely, the country’s sizable pool of natural resources to foreign hands. During this brokering, the American-owned conglomerate United Fruit Company, one of the main players in this lovely performance, managed to make off with 40% of the country’s most fertile land! Sound like a good idea? Then, in the interests of making a running for the “most outlandish display of corruption” entry in the Guinness Book of World Records, the very same United Fruit Company was also allowed to gain control of the country’s only port, the majority of its railroads, and all of its electricity production. Let’s see now, that locks up food, energy, and both national and international transportation. After adding to this mess a secret police force and the partial reinstitution of slavery, it seemed our dear Guatemala had hit rock bottom.
Then, in 1944, a miracle happened. Guatemala accomplished the near impossible. In a surge of self-motivated, self-organized, and self-implemented inertia, the dictatorship of Ubico was overthrown and replaced by a sound and stable democracy!! I liken this event to a gust of wind rustling through a deck of cards and leaving them behind in a delicately stacked house. It was known as the October Revolution, and it marked the beginning of an epoch in Guatemala’s history quite appropriately remembered as the “Ten Years of Spring.”
The first president under the new democracy was Juan José Arévalo. He introduced the first reforms in the country’s newly-earned liberalization including the right to unionize and form political parties. He also introduced Guatemala, for the first time, to the concepts of social security and healthcare. After his five-year term (Guatemalan presidents can’t be re-elected) he was succeeded by Jacobo Arbenz, one of the officers who had led the coup to unseat Ubico (and then stepped aside to implement a democracy). Under Arbenz, the country proceeded into a period of unprecedented freedom, modernization, economic growth, and tranquility. One of his most admirable, although ultimately fatal efforts was to regain a hold on the nation’s ample supply of natural resources. Naturally, this meant grappling with the United Fruit Company.
But Arbenz, bless the man, took them head-on. He build a new national port (to compete with the United Fruit’s control of international trade), planned a new highway (to compete with their control of national trade), as well as a hydro-electric plant (to compete with their control of energy). His most daring, revolutionary move, however, came in the way of land redistribution. Recognizing that the country’s most precious resource, its agriculture, had been molded out of the bedrock of colonialism, and that the country could never truly move forward until the playing field had been adjusted, he took (legal) measures to reform the current property distribution. In 1952 the Guatemalan Congress approved his plan, Decree 900. According to Decree 900, the government was given the right to expropriate the unused land of the largest plantations in the country (small and even medium sized plantations could not be touched, nor could large plantations that were being fully used—and Arbenz himself actually subjected his own land to this expropriation). The government paid for all expropriated land at face-value, as determined by declared tax value.
Now here’s where things get interesting. The United Fruit Company (the largest landowner in the country) could currently declare approximately 550,000 acres of land, but only about 15% of that land was actually being used, making it subject to expropriation. However, there was just this one little snag…U-Fruit had been seriously, nay, heinously undervaluing its land for years for tax evasion purposes. Can you guess where this is going? Well, the government kindly handed over the “declared” value and quickly set to redistributing its new property to Guatemalan farming families.
Checkmate right? Ha! Not to fret Fruit lovers, for they still had some very dirty tricks up their sleeve. You see, Fruit was, well, let's just say uniquely well connected in Washington; it had some influential stockholders who did not take kindly to potential economic sacrifices. And so when Arbenz began his little “Guatemala will rise from the ashes” game, jeopardizing the company’s interests, Fruit merely smiled, made a few phone calls, and slammed the American diplomatic and military arsenal down Arbenz’s throat.
And then they pulled the trigger.
Now, who might these stockholders have been? The two most important stockholders to whom I have alluded just so happened to be the Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, and his brother, the director of the CIA, Allen Dulles. And what they did is worthy of tears.
Here's what went down. The Dulles brothers, using the leverage that their positions afforded, sent in the CIA on a covert operation to lead a coup d’etat and oust Arbenz. Using all manner of propaganda and military force, including aerial bombing and the training of a “Liberation Army” of mercenaries, the CIA turned peace into panic. This, coupled with economic and diplomatic isolation, quickly had Guatemala on its knees. A dejected Arbenz was forced into resignation and exile. And here’s the kicker, our outwardly publicized reason for the invasion: liberating Guatemala from communism. That’s right, in the name of fighting communism the United States went into Guatemala and collapsed the first and only legitimate democracy it’s ever had.
Alas, we must all be reminded that it only takes one more gust to knock the house of cards right back to where it began. And that revenge is a dish best served with a slice of American pie.
As for beloved Guatemala, it was back to the oligarchies.
Back to the ashes.
A new U.S.-supported “president” quickly stepped in, and in the blink of an eye overturned all the constructive and forward-minded reforms Arbenz had instituted. He also quickly redefined the military as a mechanism for repression. Realizing that peaceful opposition had reached its limits, Arbenz’s supporters turned to guerrilla-like insurgency.
For the next thirty-six years (1960-1996) Guatemala found itself in the grips of civil war. It was your typical Latin American conflict, with the guerrillas, horrendously out-numbered, out-trained, and out-armed, fighting for their land, their freedom, and their democracy, while the military fought for the continued exploitation of human and natural resources, financial incentives, racism, and bloodlust. Sadly, the U.S. continued its support of the oppressors, ahem, Guatemalan military. Among our worst contributions was the training of military personnel and future dictators at the U.S. Army-run “School of the Americas.” There the United States gladly shared with our Hispanic brethren its comprehensive and highly-coveted opus-magnum on the finer points of evil, including torture (the inquisitive reader is kindly directed to the use of napalm and death-squads). One particularly ambitious graduate, Efraín Rios Montt, upon landing the dictatorship in 1982, applied his education to the massacre of over 130,000 civilians. Almost all were indigenous. He was able to accomplish this largely due to the support he received the American president at that time, Ronald Reagan, who called him a supporter of democracy and a great man. He is now wanted internationally on charges of genocide (although, at the time of writing, he has managed to slip comfortably into a congressional seat, thereby cleverly avoiding deportation by taking advantage of the Guatemalan loophole that anyone holding public office is exempt from international law and/or being a decent human being). All told, in thirty-six years of fighting, some 200,000 were killed. The army, it is estimated, was responsible for over 95% of the deaths.
In 1996, at long last, Guatemala finally called a ceasefire and signed the famed “Acuerdos de Paz” or peace agreements. Now, over ten years since their conception, Guatemala has managed to maintain at least the façade of stability. But literacy is still painfully low, formal education often non-existent. Crime is staggeringly high, and rarely punished. Corruption is rampant. Children are overworked, malnourished, and hungry. And the government has little intent to change much of anything.
Such is the “peace” that Guatemala has attained, a culturally and historically relative notion under the most generous evaluation. I will leave it to the reader to measure this current state of affairs against their own definitions of peace, and to grapple with the place and efficacy of passive resistance, and that of aggressive action.
Epilogue
Rios Montt. In 2003 he tried to run for president, but was denied on the grounds of being an international crimial and the antichrist. Hearing this news, he took to the radio making a public announcement imploring his supportors to "take to the streets." Well, that's exactly what they did, armed with guns and machettes, and transported in by his political party, "FRG." In response to the violence, the Supreme Court quickly overturned the decision, and allowed him to run. Thank god he didn't win. He had to settle for senator instead. His politcal party, over which he still presides, is stong as ever. His daughter, a staunch supporter and also a member of the Guatemalan Congress, is married to a current U.S. Senator. The Dulles Brothers recieved a similar brand of "punishment" for their deeds. John Foster has an airport named after him (one of the national ones, at that) and Allen, although sadly without an airport, was still allowed to continue on as CIA director. It wasn't until he botched Bay of Pigs that Kennedy forced him to resign that post. As for the “School of the Americas,” in response to well-deserved criticism, the United States simply decided to change the name to the “Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation” (in the words of an article I found online, they mine as well have just settled on "The Happy Funland School of Hugs"). This tactic, although as slimy as the school itself, has unfortunately proven quite successful, as I am fairly certain that hardly anyone still knows of its existence. The United Fruit Company took a similar approach, branding itself anew in the 1970’s. You may know it better by this second name: Chiquita Brands International.
Which reminds me, I must thank the lovely Ms. Chiquita Banana for gracing this not-so-short-after-all history of Guatemala. She and her fellow fruit mistresses have left a pulpy scar across this land, but perhaps by inspiring young humanitarians to share this tale, Guatemala will become able, once again, to pull itself back into the light. And to begin a new, happier chapter to its biography. One full, as they say here in Guatemala, of salud, dinero, y amor.
Health, wealth, and love.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
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4 comments:
Before you libel the people who worked at the School of the Americas, couldn't you find just one example of something that school did to cause anyone to commit a crime? I'll give a hint--no one else has. The falsehoods that have led to an entire movement attacking the SOA make up the biggest fraud on the peace and justice crowd ever. That's probably because these groups forget the third essential to go along with peace and justice--truth. Just so you know, I am the public affairs officer at WHINSEC, and the best part of my job is that I can say, "Come see for yourself who we are and what we do." You don't have to take my word, you can see for yourself. Most importantly, you can put to rest the lies that take you away from real issues.
Mr/Mrs Rials,
First of all, thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I don't know how you found it, or who led you to it, but no matter. As to your comment:
1) "Couldn't you find just one example of something that the school did to cuse anyone to commit a crime?" Perhaps you missed the part in my little post that explained how the School of the Americas condoned, in fact, taught torture techniques. If the U.S. didn't intend for these tactics to be implemented, then why were our resources used to transmit them to the military officers of oppressive, violent regimes.
2)"The falsehoods that have led up to..." Please be more descriptive here. Where, pray tell, have I falsefied anything.
3)"These groups forget the third essential to go along with peace and justice--truth" I do not associate with any of these groups. But, as a general asside, watchdogs are usually a good idea, don't you think? As for any lack of truth, please refer to point number 2.
4)Congraduations on landing public relations job at WHINSEC. Given that position, this should be right up your alley. Why exactly is your current institution no longer known as the School of the Americans but now as WHINSEC, if not to evade all of the connotations. Oh, and I love the bit about "Come see what we do here." That's been your tagline all along right? Actually, that gives me an idea. Why don't I return the invitation. Rather than me coming to see your little operation, how about you come on down here and visit me in post-US-involvement Guatemala. If that's too much to ask, maybe you'd just like to read the book "Guatemala: Nunca Mas." It's a real page-turner, what with all that gore and detail about the genocide here.
I humbly await your reply.
Hoover is probably coming back from the dead to create an FBI file for you. Right now, I can't think of any greater praise than the government doesn't agree with you.
Here is another puzzle,how is it that we live in country where winning a nobel prize for peace could hurt your political aspirations.(if gore still has any) I hope that he goes to bed tonight feeling vindicated. I'd rather have a nobel prize than be president any day. love, your very proud mother.
Hi Ben
I enjoyed your Guatemala history lesson. I could not keep from laughing after reading Mr Rials response. Is he actually being paid by taxpayers? If so we deserve a big refund for incompetence.
Mr Rials schizophrenic view of world events would be better served under the care of a psychiatrist
Dr. Dad
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