Today in Guatemala City, the right wing demonstrates. Anti-foreign/Anti-communist march

[Catherina]

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 15m

- Here in Guatemala, supporters of Ríos Montt & the military are staging a support demonstration that begins in 30 mins. "No somos genocidas!"

- Participants are asked to wear white shirts, military uniforms, black ribbons. There are also “We support Ríos Montt" groups on FB, Twitter.

- Also a number of “We are not genociders!” Groups on FB and Twitter. People who perceive verdict as an assault on "homeland."

- Survivor Benjamin Jerónimo of plaintiff's group AJR, delivering final declaration to court on Thursday. *


- * Immediately to his right, in that pic: Mendez Ruiz, Foundation Against Terrorism, who said those applauding verdict “are all Communists."

- Foundation Against Terrorism is co-organizing today's pro Ríos Montt, anti-foreign/communist march. They are angry at NGOs, foreign press.

A better picture of Mendez-Ruiz taken a few days ago. The woman in red is Montt's daughter


These are the same guys who filmed the Maya Ixil witnesses and courtroom attendees as they'd leave to intimidate them

...

Contributing to tensions outside the courtroom is an organization calling itself The Foundation Against Terrorism and operating as a government-permitted nonprofit. UNDEFEGUA says the group helped fund a march on April 23 by 500 people claiming to be Ixil and denying that a genocide against their people occurred. UNDEFEGUA members said the marchers were told they would receive fertilizer and social assistance from the government in exchange for participating in the demonstration. The Foundation Against Terrorism's president is Ricardo Mendez Ruiz, the son of Guatemala's minister of the interior. Montt's attorney Moises Galindo is a member, and according to UNDEFEGUA, the group's vice president; Ruiz told an online publication last year that Galindo was secretary.

The Foundation also funded 20-page inserts in two recent Sunday editions of El Periódico, one of the country's major newspapers, claiming genocide never took place in Guatemala and calling accusations of genocide "a Marxist conspiracy of the Catholic church." The inserts outraged advocates like Samayoa.

"They are what we call a death list, because they are basically saying who are the human rights defenders that are communists." During the war, death squads targeting guerrillas and the indigenous civilians routinely accused of supporting them received US support under the guise of cold war-era anti-communist efforts. "They have drawn a continuum, a line between the guerillas in the 80s and what is actually happening" now, said Samayoa.

UNDEFEGUA has documented 258 attacks on human rights advocates in the two months since the trial began, in contrast to February, when only 14 such incidents were counted.

...

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/16072-guatemala-genocide-trial-must-resume-say-human-rights-leaders

[Enrique]

1. is that the most interesting man in the world?

i would be so disappointed in him

[Catherina]

2. Which one? n/t

[Enrique]

3. bottom picture, far left

all men with gray beards look the same to me.

[Catherina]

6. Yes, the gray bearded one is Mendez-Ruiz

His stories, lawsuits and actions have been getting more outrageous by the day, as have his threats.

...

Unfortunately, in seeking to prosecute the material and intellectual authors of these crimes, the Attorney General has awoken the ire of pro-military structures and organizations. Since the victory of Pérez Molina's Patriot Party those who oppose her work have become increasingly vocal and confrontational.

Ricardo Méndez Ruiz Valdés is one of those opponents. He was kidnapped by guerilla forces in 1982 while his father served as Interior Minister for the Ríos Montt regime. He recently presented a baseless lawsuit against 32 supposed members of the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG), including Dr. Paz y Paz ́s recently deceased father. An emboldened Mendez Ruiz confirmed that the lawsuit was meant to harass and intimidate the attorney general. "Yes, this is political," exclaimed Méndez Ruiz. "It is against the Attorney General, for the love of god, I'm taking aim at her."

Since then, two more criminal complaints have been brought against large groups of supposed members of the guerrilla movement for acts committed during the internal armed conflict. Both complaints read as a who’s-who of the human rights community and the left including journalists, authors, attorneys and the former first lady Sandra Torres; the cases included the Attorney General’s father and a total of 12 other family members.

...

Judge Carol Patricia Flores didn’t buy the argument. Judge Flores has been charged with presiding over some of the most groundbreaking human rights cases in Guatemala's history. In her ruling, she referred repeatedly to the ―despicable acts which occurred during the time of Ríos Montt’s dictatorship. She cited one case in particular, that of a young indigenous girl who was bound by soldiers from head to toe in such a brutal way that... Judge Flores paused for a moment raising her hand to her mouth as if choking on the words that she was about to say.... the girl’s eyes fell from their sockets. The girl died shortly thereafter.

http://www.ghrc-usa.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Issue-11_final.pdf

[Catherina]

4. "we know what's going on & who's doing it"... "we wont give up our freedom"

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 21m

- AVEMILGUA, military veterans organization, is organizer of today's pro-Ríos Montt, anti-Communism/foreign NGO march.

- Here is a recent statement posted by AVEMILGUA: “EL EJERCITO Y LOS MILITARES Y CIVILES NO VAN A DESAPARECER Y YA SABEMOS QUE ESTA PASANDO ...Y QUIENES LO HACEN PASE LO QUE PASE Y SI ES NECESARIO LA LIBERTAD NO LA VAMOS A DEJAR.”
“The Army & military aren't going to disappear. Now we know what's going on & who's doing it & no matter what, we wont give up our freedom.”

- Recent AP headline on yet another weak piece from AP said verdict "soothes" Guatemala. Writer must be talking about some other Guatemala.

[Judi Lynn]

11. i saw that "soothes" headline, also! Didn't want to see the article,

knowing it wasn't going to get any better than that.

How stupid must the public seem to the "news" media, anyway?

[MisterP]

5. the Salvadoran death squads' motto, too, was "Be patriotic, kill a priest"

Jeffery Paige's "Coffee and Power" shows how this strand of liberalism (which you see in Jean-Baptiste Carrier and Plutarco Elías Calles) is what drove all these genocides in Central America in order to let the countries progress economically

[Catherina]

7. Thank you. The reviews look great and his book seems very educational. I'm ordering it now. n/t

[Catherina]

8. Photos of pro-Ríos Montt demo outside prison (60-90 ppl- LMAO)

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 11m

Photoss pro-Ríos Montt demo outside prison, by pro-military, anti-terrorist/communist orgs. ~60-90 ppl

[Catherina]

9. Update/correction: demonstration was ~40 people, not 60-90

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 18m

Update/correction: Pro-Rios Montt demonstration just now outside prison was ~40 people, not 60-90. Had bad info earlier, crowd overestimate.

[mitchtv]

10. but it looks like most are XXL

so that almost adds up to 60-90

[Judi Lynn]

12. Amazing! You'd think they'd want to hide their faces! n/t

[Judi Lynn]

13. Background from your journalist, Xeni - Guatemala: Why We Cannot Turn Away

Guatemala: Why We Cannot Turn Away
By Xeni Jardin
Source: PBS Newshour
Sunday, May 12, 2013

When the trial of Guatemalan General and former de facto head of state José Efraín Ríos Montt and his then chief of intelligence José Mauricio Rodriguez Sanchez began on March 19, 2013, I was in Washington D.C., working with NewsHour correspondent Miles O’Brien on some new science reporting projects in a shared office. The first time I went to Guatemala was around 1989, during the country’s 36-year civil war -- I was a teenager, and the experience was one of the most important and formative of my life. My interest in the peace and justice process following the end of the armed conflict and the lives of the Guatemalan people, has only grown since. So I was happy to learn that Guatemalan independent online media groups were in the courtroom with laptops and modems, live-streaming video and audio of tribunal proceedings.

I tuned in as soon as court opened at 8:30 every morning, Guatemala time. And in our shared D.C. office, over a course of weeks, every day Miles and I worked while listening to audio streaming over the internet from that courtroom far away in Guatemala City. The background audio of our workdays included witness testimonies; defense lawyers yelling at the judges; and elderly Ixil Maya women weeping as they re-told the horrors of being raped, and watching their children, brothers, mothers, and grandfathers be killed.

Both of us were trying to do other work at the time, unrelated to this story. But neither of us could turn away, or turn off the audio, even as the stories grew more graphic, more upsetting, more awful with each witness. Imagine the worst possible thing one human being can do to another. Each testimony was like that, but each in a new and seemingly more horrific way than the last.

During one of my trips to Guatemala in the 2000’s, I produced a documentary series for National Public Radio [2] about the role science and technology played in some interesting stories related to peace and justice, and related to social and economic development for the country’s majority population who are poor and indigenous. Some of the episodes focused on entities such as the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation [3] (FAFG) and the Project for the Recuperation of the Historic Archives of Guatemala’s National Police (AHPN) -- groups that have produced forensic and documentational evidence that became central to the 2013 Rios Montt genocide tribunal.

More:
http://www.zcommunications.org/guatemala-why-we-cannot-turn-away-by-xeni-jardin

[Catherina]

14. AP falsely reports 500 protesters

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 16h

- AP falsely reports 500 protesters at pro-Rios Montt/military demonstration outside prison. Bull. There were 40-50. http://m.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/putting-ex-dictator-behind-bars-pleases-many-in-guatemala-but-fears-remain-he-could-go-free/2013/05/11/5cc3494e-ba9a-11e2-b568-6917f6ac6d9d_story.html …

- This @AP item overestimates # of pro-Ríos Montt protesters today *tenfold.* Not first report w/gross errors from @AP.

- Seriously @AP what the fuck? 500 is not a rounding error. There were 50, max.

- Here's photo of pro-Ríos Montt protesters. 30-50. Not 500, AP. http://m.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/putting-ex-dictator-behind-bars-pleases-many-in-guatemala-but-fears-remain-he-could-go-free/2013/05/11/5cc3494e-ba9a-11e2-b568-6917f6ac6d9d_story.html … @mimundo_org what'd you count?

James Rodríguez ?@mimundo_org

- @xeni Yeah, definitely not 500. I was there the entire time. 100 tops...

- @xeni Here's my album from the protest. Photo essay with more details will be out in 30 mins. But judge for yourself

- @xeni My photo essay will be up in an hour...

James Rodríguez ?@mimundo_org 12h

New Photo Essay: Military Supporters Protest Against Genocide Verdict. #Guatemala #RiosMontt

2013-05-12. Military Supporters Protest Against Genocide Verdict.

Guatemala City, Guatemala.
May 12, 2013.

Roughly around 100 supporters of the armed forces gathered Sunday morning at 10 AM to protest outside Matamoros Barracks where former general and ex de facto head of state Efrain Rios Montt is held imprisoned. Rios Montt was recently convicted for genocide and crimes against humanity during Guatemala’s civil war.


Ana Virginia Giron gives an animated speech denouncing the genocide verdict. Ana is the daughter of an army officer killed in 1973. Behind her a sign reads: “The reconciliation law applies to everyone.”






The t-shirt reads: “Liberty for those who fought for our freedom.”


Dora de Gonzalez, married to an Army officer, states: “I am here because I lived the war. I think it is unfair that [Judge] Jazmin Barrios sold out our country for a few euros. There was no genocide here, there was a war. The Army fought under the constitutional law to protect national sovereignty. The guerrilla was nearly in the capital city and the army was able to throw them out. The guerrilla is bitter because they lost.”




“The Peace Secretary said: There was no genocide.”


After several people spoke on the loudspeaker, a prayer was held.

...




http://www.mimundo.org/2013/05/13/2013-05-12-military-supporters-protest-against-genocide-verdict/

(More photos at link)

[Judi Lynn]

15. AP never fails to amaze. 50 becomes 500 peeps. Nice propaganda work, A.P.

Most were very fair, European-descended, and they were there to say no one committed genocide against them, apparently.

They've got a point, if that's what was meant.

What a nasty group. Sounds as if they were all related to members of the military. They probably were strongly urged to attend.

Back at the link you posted, 2nd from the bottom, it's easy to spot at least two very, VERY fair skinned US military types who were there to lend some kind of "moral" support, evidently.

Wanted to mention, having seen it referenced on one of the articles you posted, Rios-Montt's introduction of extreme US protestant fundamentalism combined with insane hatred of potential "communists," that when I was raised in California, during the Cold War, there WAS a constant effort being made to spread rumors, horrendous lies, outlandish tall tales being passed off as common knowledge, all linking the Catholic Church and communism. I am intimately aware of this happening all around me as a child, at school, at church, in common conversations. They entertained themselves with the story they insisted was true that a local Catholic Church was hit by a truck and when the walls fell down, they uncovered a secret stash of many weapons and ammunition which proved they were actually commies! Wow! They spread rumors about everyone in public life who wasn't a hero of the fundie W.A.S.P. community.

Looks as if Guatemalan oligarchs never allowed the country to progress beyond the state it was in when the government committed genocide. Still the same hatred, still the same racism, it's all still there, and the same people are running the government. Doesn't seem possible, but clearly it's true.

[Catherina]

16. Take a look at the ruling elite, it's all very light and they view power and riches as a birthright

Mostly descendants of the Spanish Colonizers and of Germans who came later, lured by the promise of coffee and sugar fortunes. They intermarried a lot. Later came a few Americans, Italians and French who were welcomed into the circle which is how Rios Montt ended up with someone like Harris Whitbeck Sr as his longtime advisor and collaborator. Whitbeck, father of the CNN's Mexico correspondent by the same name, ran the “Frijoles y Fusiles” (Beans and Bullets) program.

What's very sad for the Catholic Church is that the hierachy isn't generally true to the people, since most if it came from the elite anyway. I was surprised to learn that Rios Montt's brother, Mario Enrique Rios Mont (named spelled differently due to mispelling on birth certificate that Mario never corrected) openly opposed him and was chosen to succeed assassinated Monsignor Gerardi whose work they say he continued with fervor. (I have no idea if what "they" say is true, or how true it is).

Since then, the church's accountant has become its lion for justice. He has called for restricting the
size and influence of the armed forces and government intelligence agencies. "During more than 40
years of violence, the armed forces have invaded every strata of society," the bishop said in a
television interview.

"The history of Guatemala is a history of injustice and impunity," he said. "The people who talk--the
president, the chief justice of the Supreme Court, the ministers--are not the ones who have the real
power. The real power is behind the throne, at the highest levels of politics, business and the military."

...

Whereas the general rarely talks with the media, the bishop accepts them as an ally in the church's
struggle to reveal the secrets of the war and Gerardi's murder.

"Some people just want to forget things. But first, it can't be done; and even if it could, that would
not let us learn from experience," he said. "We need to heal the wounds correctly in order to have a
different destiny."
But any move forward depends in part on the incoming government--one the bishop's brother may
well dominate. The church will continue to insist on justice, he said.
Solving Gerardi's murder "would be the first sign that the government wants to do things well," he
said. But he is not hopeful that the change in administration will bring a change in attitude.

http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/guatemala/brothers.htm

It's jarring to see the hierarchy so often siding with the elite while their own priests and nuns are being persecute. Exceptions like Archbishop Romero seem to be rare.

[Judi Lynn]

20. It's good to know Rios Montt's brother, Rios Mont, took up the work of the nurdered Gerardi.

There is one good person in the family.

What a shame there are so few of the Church hierarchy chosing to respect the actual Christian teachings.

Appreciate your insights. Thank you.

[Catherina]

18. AP has been corrected by both journalists who were there

but they neglect, refuse?, to correct it. And now of course, "500" is official since the Washington Post reran it.

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 8h

.@Volpe_Daniele @cascadiasolid hard to understand how AP could allow such an error to remain uncorrected--it still says 500 everywhere.

[Judi Lynn]

21. Readers should take that as an acknowledgement the facts don't matter to AP

if they conflict with the propaganda line.

Ugly revelation they won't retract something which shouldn't be allowed to stand.

Clearly that small group is connected directly to the family of military and a few tag along US "advisors" or whatever in the mix.

[ocpagu]

17. I'm always amazed to see right-wing activism in non-developed countries.

Some people never learn.

But then again, there are only two kind of right-wingers in Latin America:

1 - those who are rich
2 - those who are stupid

There's no other explanation.

Thanks for this.

[Judi Lynn]

22. Love that right-wing assessment. It's great! I've never seen any exceptions. n/t

[Catherina]

19. UK Guardian got the numbers and the story right.

Ex-dictator's backers rally at Guatemala prison
AP foreign, Monday May 13 2013

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Several dozen people protested on Sunday outside a Guatemala prison against the genocide conviction for former dictator Efrain Rios Montt.

About 50 supporters dressed in white and military garb shouted "Viva Rios Montt" at the Matamoros prison, where the ex-strongman was taken after he received a landmark 80-year sentence for genocide and crimes against humanity.

Demonstrators said the judicial process was corrupt and demanded that a higher court nullify the verdict. Protesters said prosecutors couldn't prove the state had a motive to kill 1,771 Maya.

...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/10789285

Imagine their reaction if the courts ever have the courage to judge responsibility for the ~200,000 dead, the displacement and the 250,000 orphans they created?

[Judi Lynn]

23. Interesting the correct number appears outside the Americas. n/t