Ex-Guatemalan Soldier Gets 10 Years in US Prison

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Ex-Guatemalan Soldier Gets 10 Years in US Prison
Ex-Guatemalan soldier linked to 1982 massacre in homeland sentenced to 10 years in US prison
The Associated Press
By CURT ANDERSON AP Legal Affairs Writer
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. September 16, 2010 (AP)

http://a.abcnews.com.nyud.net:8090/images/US/10a2d6d55dfa47dd9e934f73f46c929e_mn.jpg

A former Guatemalan soldier who admitted participating in a 1982 massacre in his homeland has been sentenced to 10 years in U.S. prison for making false statements on citizenship forms.

A federal judge in Florida imposed the maximum sentence Thursday on 54-year-old Gilberto Jordan. Jordan pleaded guilty to lying on U.S. citizenship forms about his military service and role in the massacre in that Central American country.

Court documents show Jordan was part of an elite Guatemalan unit that targeted anti-government guerrillas. The massacre took place in December 1982 in the town of Dos Erres, where at least 162 people including women and infants were killed.



Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=11655732

---

Esperanza Arreaga, 62, lost two small
daughters and 14 others in her
extended family in the massacre at Las
Dos Erres. (Larry Kaplow/GlobalPost)

Slow progress in prosecuting accused Guatemalan war criminals
A suspect has pleaded guilty to immigration violations — but will he face more serious charges?
By Larry Kaplow — Special to GlobalPost
Published: July 11, 2010 07:09 ET in The Americas

~snip~
According to witnesses, including two former soldiers in hiding who have aided the Guatemalan prosecution, children were thrown alive into the dry well, many women and girls were raped, beaten to death with a hammer and thrown in also, and then men were tortured and shot.

Archeologists in 1995 found the tangled remains of more than 150 people in the well as well as remnants of more bodies scattered on the ground in two areas nearby.

The massacre was part of the Guatemalan military’s scorched earth campaign in a civil war that killed more than 200,000 people, the vast majority at the hands of the army.

More:
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/the-americas/100709/guatemala-las-dos-erres

[gratuitous]

1. After 10 years in prison here

I hope he gets sent back to Guatemala to answer for anything he might have done during his military career. Hard to believe that some of these monsters are still walking around after the zealous pursuit and prosecution of them by the Reagan administration, bulwark against tyranny and defender of freedom that I've always heard it was.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Too much power rested in the hands of too incapable a President.

The people making his decisions ran right over hundreds of thousands of innocent people in Central America behind our backs, destroying lives for generations of human beings.

People with any depth realize this is a vast human tragedy, not "politics," and not bean bag. What a shame so many chose to remain ignorant, they pobably imagine their ignorance is a defense against their guilt if they simply "didn't know" it happened.

That's how the game gets played, apparently. Sad, isn't it?

[a la izquierda]

5. It wasn't just Reagan...

but I know you're aware of that.
Carter, too, was complicit...as was Ford, Nixon, LBJ and Kennedy. Carter looked the other way when he knew damned well what the Somozas were up to. Kennedy tried to throw Alliance for Progress money at Latin America's problems...LBJ diddled around while the CIA trained operatives in Guatemala.
And then there were the Republicans.

I hope my students are prepared to read the very disturbing book that's coming their way in a few weeks. Every year, I try to prepare them. Every year, they come in sick and shocked looking on discussion day. This year it's Mayas in Post-war Guatemala, only slightly tamer than last year's Blood of Guatemala.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Guatemala has been the unlucky target of US attention for so long.

What an event to remember, when _{George W. Bush} did them the honor of visiting them in his triumphal tour of some countries in Latin America a few years ago.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com.nyud.net:8090/_FxCl-zDjIOQ/RfbFDpgyZxI/AAAAAAAAA50/DKjr5LWqd4o/s400/Guatemala-9.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org.nyud.net:8090/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Iximche_George_W_Bush.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org.nyud.net:8090/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Iximche_George_W_Bush_Handshake.jpg

http://cache.daylife.com.nyud.net:8090/imageserve/09D4bk29uG0c4/610x.jpg

"A Mayan priest performs a cleansing ceremony at the temple that was visited by U.S. President
George W. Bush on Monday in the Iximche archaeological site, fearing President Bush brought
bad spirits, in Guatemala, Thursday, March 15, 2007. Bush visited Iximche during a five-nation
tour of Latin America, which included a daylong stopover in Guatemala."

http://www.blogcdn.com.nyud.net:8090/

The reaction in the streets in Guatemala was exactly as it was everywhere else,
with signs everywhere,even in Colombia saying, "Fuera, Bush" and the signs in
Brazil saying, "Fora, Bush,"


http://www.elpais.com.nyud.net:8090/recorte/20070308elpepuint_7/XLCO/Ies/Fora_Bush.jpg

http://www.cfr.org.nyud.net:8090/content/publications/images/ForaBushAP.jpg http://www.brigadasantiimperialistas.net.nyud.net:8090/Imagenes_Archiv/070311-FueraBushDeColombia-13.JPG

[pattmarty]

3. He MAY never get out of prison.

[a la izquierda]

4. Sick, sick, sick

I hope their faces, every last one, haunt your dreams.