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Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1999 19:09:40 -0500
From: Paddy Inman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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March 11, 1999
>
>
> Clinton Apologizes for U.S. Support of
Guatemalan Rightists
>
>
> By JOHN M. BRODER
>
>GUATEMALA -- President Clinton apologized Wednesday for United States
support for right-wing governments in Guatemala that killed tens of
thousands of rebels and Mayan Indians in a 36-year civil war and promised
American support for national reconciliation.
>
> At a forum with Guatemalan leaders, Clinton said, "For the United
States, it is important that I state clearly that support for military
forces and intelligence units which engaged in violence and widespread
repression was wrong, and the United States must not repeat that mistake."
>
> He made the statement in his opening statement to an informal
gathering of leaders from many sectors of Guatemalan society, including
prominent Indians, women, Government officials and representatives of a
truth commission that issued a report last month on the war. The said the
United States gave money and training to Guatemalan forces that committed
acts of genocide against Mayans and other extreme human rights abuses in
the conflict, which began in 1960.
>
> The involvement of the Central Intelligence Agency in the campaign of
terror against Mayan and leftist insurgents had long been an open secret.
But the report of the Historical Clarification Commission confirmed the
C.I.A. participation in a war that killed more than 200,000 people.
>
> The report said American training of Guatemalan military officers in
counterinsurgency played a significant role in the torture, kidnapping and
execution of thousands of civilians.
>
> American officials had previously endorsed the findings of the panel.
But no President had directly confronted the United States role in the
atrocities.
>
> Clinton praised Guatemala as a society that is
coming to terms with its past and is moving forward.
>
> The United States will no longer take part in
campaigns of repression, Clinton said. "We must and will,
> instead, continue to support the peace and
reconciliation process in Guatemala," Clinton said on the third day
> of a four-day journey through Central America.
>
> Earlier Wednesday, in El Salvador, the
President told regional legislative leaders that it was time to put the
> bitter ideological struggles of the past behind
them and begin to address their gaping social and economic
> inequalities.
>
> In an address to the National Assembly of El
Salvador Wednesday, Clinton obliquely acknowledged the
> United States role in the wars that bloodied
the region. But he stopped short of apologizing for American
> support for murderous military regimes that
fostered decadeslong reigns of repression.
>
> American backing for right-wing governments in
Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua and covert
> actions against leftist guerrillas "bitter
divisions" in the United States, Clinton said. But with every nation in
> Central America now under democratic rule, he
added, the United States will try provide the financial and
> moral assistance to enhance political and
economic development.
>
> "We are determined to remember the past,"
Clinton said, "but never repeat it."
>
> He promised to "do everything I possibly can"
to address the unequal treatment of some illegal immigrants
> from Central America to the United States.
>
> But even as he made the pledge, the
Administration began steps to deport 5,000 Salvadorans and Guatemalans
> who entered the United States illegally after
Hurricane Mitch in October.
>
> "We must enforce our laws," Clinton said,
referring to an issue that has angered governments in the region.
> "But we will do so with justice and with
fairness."
>
> He specifically pledged to try to change the
rules under which El Salvadorans and Guatemalans who entered
> the United States in the 1980's have to prove
that they face political retribution if they are returned to their
> home countries.
>
> Under the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central
American Relief Act of 1997, Cubans and Nicaraguans who
> entered the United States illegally fleeing
left-wing governments are granted a presumption of political
> hardship and given amnesty from deportation.
>
> But El Salvadorans and Guatemalans who fled
authoritarian governments have to overcome steep hurdles to
> avoid being returned under the law, which
Republicans sponsored.
>
> Clinton told the Assembly in San Salvador
Wednesday that he would try to enforce the law in a way that
> would extend equal treatment to all political
refugees from the region. "The law should reflect what they
> suffered rather than who caused the suffering,"
Clinton said. "This is wrong, and we should change it."
>
> The Assembly, which includes members from
guerrilla groups that battled the Government throughout the
> 80's, the Farabundo Marti National Liberation
Front, applauded Clinton.
>
> Assembly President Juan Duch Martinez said in
his introduction for Clinton that it was not longer war, but a
> lack of jobs that drove so many Central
Americans to migrate to the United States. Martinez said he hoped that
> members of Congress would "hear the requests of
all of our brothers and sisters in illegal immigrant status."
>
> "This is supported by everyone in El Salvador,"
Duch said.
>
> Clinton said the ideological battlefields had
been transformed into a marketplace of competing ideas. The
> challenge now, he said, is to move beyond the
"bitter divide between left and right" and begin to address the
> "embittering divide between poverty and wealth."
>
> To that end, the Administration is proposing a series of laws to
liberalize trade to help the region recover from the hurricane damage. The
measures, subject to Congressional approval, would exempt from duties
textiles and apparel assembled in Central America from fabric woven in the
United States.
> Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company
>
>
>
> ++++ stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal ++++
> ++++ if you agree copy these 3 sentences in your own sig ++++
>
>
>
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come because your liberation is bound with mine, then let us work together."
--Aboriginal Woman
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