The Defense Department denies offering instruction in abusive interrogation techniques. But U.S. Army Special Forces advisers say they trained select Salvadoran soldiers in what they call “negative-incentive” methods.
These three presidents have stories that are interwoven. Much like the threads of an olive green military dress uniform, pulling too hard, now, at any one loose string, could start unraveling the fabric to bare what lies beneath.
Here’s why the NRA is dead wrong about gun control causing genocide. But at least even their paid scholars agree with human rights groups about the horrors of the military dictatorship in Guatemala.
The first time the U.S. tried to extradite a Guatemalan military officer for drug trafficking, it took the assassination of the nation’s chief justice, in 1994, to stop it. No officers and few civilians have been extradited since.
“With names like the “Brotherhood” (Cofradía) and the “Operators,” the intelligence cliques “developed their own vertical leader-subordinate network of recognition, relationships, and loyalties.”
The bloodshed woven through the fabric of Guatemalan society remains a rarely told story. One reason for the ongoing lack of attention is the impunity that has continues to plague the nation.
President George W. Bush’s trip to Latin America also comes in the wake of evidence that organized crime has infiltrated the top law enforcement agencies of two nations on his travel itinerary.
