Truth and justice
On January 5, 2012, just days before the January 14 inauguration of former general Otto Perez Molina as President of Guatemala, a Guatemalan court in a highly irregular procedure dismissed charges against Perez Molina for the 1992 forced disappearance, illegal detention, prolonged torture and presumed extrajudicial execution of Efrain Bamaca.
Retired army general Otto Perez Molina, elected on an "iron fist" platform by Guatemalans weary of unrelenting violence, will take office on January 14. Despite his victory, questions remain unanswered both about his past and about the methods he will use to suppress the country's escalating disorder.
These articles (below) about U.S. syphilis "experiments" in Guatemala in the 1940s, are another indication and reminder of just what the political, economic and military elites of the United States have long thought about Guatemala and particularly the exploited and poor majority.
This past December 10th, the British magazine The Economist published an article that makes a reference to a memorandum of understanding between the government of Honduras and two United States firms regarding the construction of Model Cities (Charter Cities) in Honduran territory, without notifying the Honduran people up to now of the planned transactions.
On Thursday, December 8, 2011, we will gather at the Guatemalan Embassy to call for the release of political prisoner and Q'eqchi' peasant leader Ramiro Choc and an end to the repression of indigenous and peasant communities and leaders.
