Israel’s Hand in Guatemala’s Genocide
Israels Hand in Guatemalas Genocide
January 14, 2014
From the Archive: As world leaders struggle to praise the late Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, infamous for abetting the 1982 massacre of Palestinian civilians at Sabra and Shatila in Lebanon, another grim chapter of Sharons history was his role in the Guatemalan genocide, Robert Parry wrote in 2013.
By Robert Parry (Originally published on May 23, 2013)
At the height of Guatemalas mass slaughters in the 1980s, including genocide against the Ixil Indians, the Reagan administration worked with Israeli officials to provide helicopters that the Guatemalan army used to hunt down fleeing villagers, according to documentary and eyewitness evidence. During testimony at the recent genocide trial of former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt, one surprise was how often massacre survivors cited the Armys use of helicopters in the scorched-earth offensives.
Journalist Allan Nairn, who covered the war in Guatemala and attended the Rios Montt trial, said in an interview, one interesting thing that came out in the trial, as witness after witness testified, was a very substantial number of them talked about fleeing into the mountains and being bombed, attacked and machine gunned from U.S. planes and helicopters.
At the time this was going on, I was aware this was happening in some cases, but from the testimony of the witnesses, it sounded like these attacks from U.S. planes and helicopters were more frequent than we realized at the time. Thats an example of how we dont know the whole story yet how extensive the U.S. complicity was in these crimes.
Part of the mystery was where did Guatemalas UH-1H Huey helicopters come from, since the U.S. Congress continued to resist military sales to Guatemala because of its wretched human rights record. The answer appears to be that some helicopters were arranged secretly by President Ronald Reagans National Security Council staff through Israeli intelligence networks.
More:
http://consortiumnews.com/2014/01/14/israels-hand-in-guatemalas-genocide-2/