Beasts of Prey - In Guatemala, someone has declared war on women

[housewolf]

:cry:

Beasts of prey

In this country the body of a girl barely into her teens, or a mother, or a student, can be found trussed with barbed wire, horrifically mutilated, insults carved into her flesh, raped, murdered, beheaded and dumped on a roadside. In its capital city, barely a day goes by without another corpse being found. Bodies are appearing at an average of two a day this year: 312 in the first five months, adding to the 1,500 females raped, tortured and murdered in the past four years.

This country is Guatemala, and to be a woman here is to be considered prey. Prey to murderers who know they stand little chance of being caught. Prey not just on the street, nor at night, nor in back alleys, but in their homes, outside offices, in broad daylight. In Guatemala someone has declared war on women.

<snip>

By the early 1950s, vast swathes of Guatemala lay in the hands of America's United Fruit Company. In 1954, when the country's left-leaning government started expropriating some of this land to distribute to the poor, the CIA, whose director had financial ties to the company, orchestrated a military coup. Land reform stopped, left-wing guerrilla groups began to form and the US-sponsored anti-insurgency campaign began. The 30-year cycle of repression that followed, reaching its bloodiest peak in the 1980s, was the most violent, though least reported, in Latin America.

<snip>

In recognition that it was those the US had armed, and in part trained in methods of sadistic repression, who were responsible for most of the atrocities, the UN-sponsored peace deal demanded that the country's armed forces and police be reduced and reformed. It also demanded that those responsible for the worst atrocities be brought to justice. Not only did this not happen, but Efrian Rios Montt, the general accused of acts of genocide at the height of the war (charges famously dismissed by the former US president Ronald Reagan as a "bum rap"), subsequently stood for president. Though he failed in this bid, he was eventually elected president of Congress — a position similar to the Speaker of the House.

<snip>

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2099-1740992,00.html

[ck4829]

1. 'blowback' exists outside Afghanistan

:(

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. Silence On The Mountain..... link.

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0822333686.01._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_AA240_SH20_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0822333686/qid=1125267328/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-7486887-4464639?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

From Publishers Weekly
Written in the vein of a Robert Kaplan travel journal, this profound book traces the history of Guatemala's 36-year internal struggle through personal interviews that recount the heart-wrenching stories of plantation owners, army officials, guerrillas and the wretchedly poor peasants stuck in the middle. Wilkinson's narrative unfolds gradually, beginning with his quest to unlock the mysteries of the short-lived 1952 Law of Agrarian Reform, which saw the redistribution of land to the working class. He goes on to explain many of the causes and consequences of the country's political and social problems.

At one point, Wilkinson vividly describes how the entire town of Sacuchum uncharacteristically gathered to recount for him and thus record for the outside world how the army raped, tortured and massacred members of the community because they were believed to have supported the guerrillas. Much of what's revealed in Wilkinson's account of the country's trials is hard to stomach, especially his description of CIA involvement in Guatemala. In many instances, Wilkinson's personal story gets in the way of the larger account he is trying to tell, and the book becomes more about him (he was just out of college in 1993, when he made the trip) than about events in Guatemala. However, this book is both easy to read and compelling, and Wilkinson's little self-indulgences are easily forgivable given the powerful subject matter and how well it is told by Wilkinson, now a lawyer with Human Rights Watch.

[beetbox]

3. Legacy of overthrown Arbenz Gov't

so so sad.

Women and children suffer the worst in war zones. Everywhere there is a capitalist economy is a war zone.

The victims of the World Financial structures are strewn about the planet.

[sam sarrha]

4. they say 800 woman have been reported missing murdered in Juarez by el paso

they have found about 300 bodies

[bemildred]

5. If this is not terrorism, what is?

Why are we not doing something about this?

[wli]

6. because Bushler & the CIA are instigating it n/t

[wli]

7. direct result of US acts, repressors from the School of the Americas n/t

[ismnotwasm]

8. Just sent the E-card

And forwarded the article to folks. That this goes on in so many countries, including this one-- I have no words to express myself. It MUST stop.

[housewolf]

9. Guatamala's "chief bad guy"

Just found the following note re: the Guatamala article posted by Laura Rosen:

Guatemala's war on women. Update: Reader AR notes, "The chief bad guy in Guatemala's genocide/femicide, Efrain Rios Montt, is a 'born again Christian' and his political comeback was supported by his good friend and spiritual advisor, the 'Rev.' Pat Robertson."


http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/002426.html