Images of Guatemala ... Photos by Linda Panetta
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In 1999, the United Nations Commission for Historical Clarification (CEH) released a report documenting human rights violations in Guatemala during its 36-year internal war. This report charges the Guatemalan government with waging a campaign of "genocide" against the indigenous population, and cites the Guatemalan security forces as being responsible for 93 percent of the human rights abuses that resulted in more than 200,000 deaths and "disappearances." The report also singles out the kind of training offered at the US Army School of the Americas (SOA) as having "had a significant bearing on human rights violations during the armed confrontation." Earlier this year (2000) President Portillo of Guatemala cited 2 officers in the bludgeoning death of human rights champion Bishop Juan Gerardi. Col. Lima Estrada, one of those cited, is an SOA gradute.

The aggressive, racist plot of the government against the indigenous population included the massacre of entire communities, resulting in the complete elimination and massacre of at least 626 communities. The vast majority of those tortured and killed were Mayan. Torture, assassinations, and scorched-earth genocidal tactics were not aberrations or the work of rogue sadists in remore places. They were committed as a specific strategy, as part of a counterinsurgency campaign in which such acts of savagery were used systematically by the armed forces to incite terror, humiliation, and suffering.

The following are photos taken from one of the hardest hit regions in Guatemala. These are people representative of those our government would like you to believe are our "enemies," are a "threat to National Security." They continue to grieve for their loved ones who were tortured, killed, and disappeared. They continue to plead for justice -- Please use your voice to help end the violence against our sisters and brothers, to put an end to impunity, to CLOSE the "School of Assassins." Contact your Congressional Reps and ask them to cut all funding to the SOA! Call: the Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121; or Write: The Honorable (name), US House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515 / U.S. Senate, Washington, DC 20510.

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