from susanne jonas:
I am attaching something I wrote after the
assassination. I have been in touch w/ people in Guatemala quite
regularly
since then, and I think the whole peace process is in the balance.
Yesterday
I heard that the mayor of Santa Cruz del Quiche (elected from a comite
civico) was assassinated as well -- the message seems to be to try to
destroy everything new. People in Guate are caught between the fear
reflex
and a determination not to let it all be destroyed.
An entire nation is haunted by the bloody image of Msgr.
Juan Gerardi's skull, crushed by a cement block and spread
across the floor of his garage on the night of April 26. His
corpse could be identified only by the ring on his finger
(the only object of value). The method of assassination was
grotesquely deliberate, the message an unmistakeable
reminder to Guatemalans of the worst atrocities of the 36-
year civil war. But the war is over; this is the kind of
political crime that was supposed to have been ended forever
by the signing of the Peace Accords in December 1996. So how
can we make sense of such a deed?
One of Guatemala's leading Bishops, Msgr. Gerardi was a
giant of a man. During the height of the army's dirty war in
the early 1980s, he was the target of assassination attempts
and, after closing down the diocese in Quiché, was forced
into exile. After returning in 1984, even as the war
continued, he played a central role in developing the
Catholic Church's Episcopal Conference into the army's most
formidable adversary. Under his stewardship, the
Archbishop's Human Rights Office was crucial during the
peace negotiations of the 1990s. Just last Friday his office
released a monumental report on the human rights crimes of
the war, making clear that those crimes had been
overwhelmingly committed by the army. Based on testimony
taken from 6,000 civilians, the report was entitled "Nunca
Más," "Never Again."
Beyond his humanitarian (pastoral/ human rights) leadership,
Msgr. Gerardi was also an intellectual giant. For the last
ten years, while writing my most recent books on Guatemala,
I relied on extensive discussions with him whenever I was in
the country. His piercing wisdom is irreplaceable -- not
unlike that of the Jesuits murdered in 1989 during El
Salvador's civil war. But that was a war-time political
crime; this is a peace-time crime. So how can we make sense
of it?
The stakes are high: the future of peace in Guatemala. This
spectacularly beautiful country endured Latin America's
longest and bloodiest Cold War civil war, which cost the
lives of up to 200,000 civilians, mainly highlands Indians.
The very brutality of the war, the scorched-earth policies
and massacres carried out by Guatemala's U.S.-trained and -
supported counterinsurgency army, made the peace process
even more significant. For millions of Guatemalans, the
signing of the Peace Accords on December 29, 1996 symbolized
the end of a long nightmare, the possibility of a
"reinvented" Guatemala -- demilitarized, ideologically
pluralistic, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural (to reflect the
country's 60% indigenous majority), tolerant enough to
permit participation across the entire political spectrum
and to confront the truth about past crimes.
But the peace process always had its enemies. Peace
resisters in the army and among the traditional economic
elites never ceased in their attempts to subvert and
undermine what was being built. Spending two weeks there
just before Easter, I could sense the deterioration of the
political climate, the growing resistances to implementing
what had been signed. No one ever doubted that this second
stage of the peace process would be difficult. But no one
was prepared for defiance in so violent a form.
What will be the long-range effect of the Gerardi
assassination? Will it revive the reflex of fear that
Guatemalans were slowly shedding -- above all, among
civilians who have been coming forward to give testimony for
the Church report and for the official Truth Commission
report? Or will it galvanize the great majority of
Guatemalans who have constructed, welcomed, and supported
the peace process? And will it energize the government to
follow through on the constitutional reforms that will
demilitarize Guatemala and realize the dreams inherent in
the Accords?
This turning point is not the first for Guatemala. In 1954,
the CIA ousted the democratically elected government of
Jacobo Arbenz. On that occasion, at the height of the Cold
War, Guatemalans thought they had no alternative but to
accept the dirty hand they had been dealt. But today, nearly
45 years later, Guatemalans are not prepared to give up what
they have won after so much bloodshed. With a great deal of
help from the international community, Guatemala can defeat
the desperate actions of a tiny, isolated (but still-
powerful) coalition of peace resisters.
What can the U.S. government do to help? FBI assistance in
investigating the crime is only a small beginning. What
Guatemala urgently needs from the U.S. in this moment of
crisis is an unequivocal message of support for full and
immediate compliance with the content of the Accords,
particularly on demilitarization. U.S. funding should be
conditioned on such compliance. Guatemala also needs
Washington's contribution to Msgr. Gerardi's mission for
truth: full declassification of all U.S. files pertaining to
Guatemala's war and the U.S. role in that war.
------------------------
Susanne Jonas, who teaches Latin American & Latino Studies
at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has been
writing about Guatemala for over 30 years, and is currently
completing a new book on Guatemala's peace process. Recent
works include The Battle for Guatemala (1991) and "Dangerous
Liaisons: The U.S. in Guatemala,"Foreign Policy, Summer 1996
Contact: Friday thru Monday: TEL/FAX: 415- 826 8338
Tues thru Thurs: TEL 408 459 3232, FAX 408 459 3125
If anyone wants to know how to "help" keep the peace process momentum
alive (i.e. how to pressure both the Guatemalan and U.S. governments),
they should contact me at this
e-mail -- as well as the Guatemala News & Information Bureau
(gnib@igc.org).