Human Rights

In response to Rachel’s question as to why teachers were often targets of kidnappings and murder, I believe it had to do with the potential “’subversive’” nature of their jobs (49). Teachers had the ability to implant ideas in the heads of others, especially into the younger generation who are likely to accept innovative ideas. What surprises me is the bravery of people who decided to be teachers and journalists, both careers that are “practiced under censure of death” (49). The disfiguration of bodies always gets me, and I wonder how Guatemalans dealt with this every day. “These acts of bestiality only serve to sink the nation deeper into the most degenerate immorality” Lovell states in Chapter 9: “Peace of the Dead.” (57). Through this statement he provides an explanation for why Guatemala has sunk so low, and why it is difficult for her to stand up again. The effects of severe oppression seem to never fade, which seems to be a repeated theme throughout many of our readings. Those who have come to power before the 1980’s and claimed to have Guatemala’s best interests at mind, only left behind death and corruption, as was the case with Rios Montt. However, even when an honest man such as Cerezo became president, the army still had control over the civilians.

What really caught my attention was the report filed by the U.S Department of State that detailed the acts of violence in Guatemala, almost berating the Guatemalan government for not dealing justice to those guilty of kidnapping and murder. I was even more surprised by Cerezo’s dismissal of the report, although perhaps I shouldn’t be after everything we have read about Guatemala. “There is no small, tragic irony in this exchange of words, for the architects of U.S. foreign policy in the 1990s only have their colleagues of forty years ago to thank for cultivating a military caste that has brought so much grief to the people of Guatemala,” Lovell declares at the end of Chapter 12: “A Militarized Society” (77). What I wonder is, what did Cerezo do with the $800 million that the U.S. gave in aid? I am especially curious after discovering in the next chapter that the “Cerezo regime has been unable to distinguish itself in anyway, or to leave behind a human rights record different from that of military dictatorships” (80). What will it take for a human rights organization to be established in Guatemala and is it possible for it to not become corrupted, as was the case with CDRO? The first step appears to be acknowledging the violence in Guatemala and drawing attention to it, as did Ramiro de Leon Carpio. The second step however, is even more risky: prosecuting the guilty. It’s a risky business for the same reason that being a teacher or journalist was risky earlier. Anyone who strives against the army is threatened with death.

On a side note, I just wanted to say that my favorite quote in this week’s reading is, “It has become, for me, a peculiar habit of mind, a metaphor of life and death” (102). In less than a month, I hope to experience what Lovell is trying to express in this statement.