-------------------------------------------------------- From: "Rights Action" <•••@••.•••> Subject: New York Times double-speak: Deconstructing an editorial concerning Guatemala Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2007 15:01:39 -0400 NEW YORK TIMES DISTORTIONS: DECONSTRUCTING A NYT EDITORIAL CONCERNING GUATEMALA On the face of it concerned about impunity in Guatemala, the NYT editorial below cover-ups historic and on-going direct and indirect involvement of North American governments, private sectors and their military and economic interests in Guatemala. WHY 'DECONSTRUCT' MAIN STREAM MEDIA? To end the impunity of the wealthy and powerful sectors in a place like Guatemala, and help establish a real democratic culture and institutions and an equality-based and environmentally friendly development model, we must break through the narrow and misleading "nation-state" analysis, so often used by the media and countries of the global north, to understand how the global north (including our economic, military and political sectors) contribute to and benefit from the impunity, injustices and inequalities in a place like Guatemala. Covering, denying or ignoring how other governments and global economic actors contribute to and benefit from impunity in a place like Guatemala only serves to help maintain that very impunity. Dang it. Please re-distribute this info far n wide. If you want on/ off this elist: •••@••.•••. WHAT TO DO: see below. === ONLY THE CRIMINALS ARE SAFE New York Times Editorial, July 31, 2007 [The editorial deals narrowly with some criminals in Guatemala's FRG party, not criminals in the other major Guatemalan parties backed by the US (and Canada). The editorial ignores the direct criminal role the US played in Guatemala's genocide and State terrorism.] Guatemala¹s vicious 36-year civil war ended a decade ago. Unfortunately, the bloodshed and rampant impunity have not. More than 5,000 murders are reported each year. Many are committed by the same groups ‹ both left and right ‹ that terrorized the country during the war but that now have gotten into organized crime, including drug and human trafficking. [The NYT makes misleading reference to criminals of the "left and right". The vast majority of high-powered criminals acting with impunity and often immunity in Guatemala are from the "right" - most were direct allies of the US during the mis-named "cold war" when the US back State-terrorism and genocide in Guatemala.] Only a tiny fraction of these murders are ever investigated. Even fewer are brought to trial. At the request of Guatemala¹s government, the United Nations proposed creating a commission of experts to help investigate and prosecute these crimes. The Guatemalan congress is expected to vote tomorrow on whether to accept the U.N.¹s help. Unfortunately one powerful party, the Guatemalan Republican Front, or F.R.G. ‹ the party of the former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt ‹ is fiercely opposed and looks as if it can muster the votes to block passage. [While the FRG has members that ought to be in jail, guilty of crimes against humanity, genocide, and more, there are war criminals in the other major parties as well ..., let alone Guatemala's oligarchy fully supported the US-backed military and pseudo-military regimes from 1954 right through the 1990s, and operated their own death squads.] The proposed commission would do a lot more than just issue a report on what is going wrong in Guatemala. It would also help train police investigators and act as an auxiliary prosecutor, helping Guatemala¹s public prosecutors develop cases and see them through to the end. Guatemala¹s own police and judiciary are too terrorized or too corrupted by these rogue groups to go after the criminals on their own. The Bush administration has rightly expressed its support for the U.N. commission. Many leading members of Guatemalan society, including the human rights groups and the minister of defense, are backing it as well. The F.R.G. claims that bringing in the U.N. commission would violate Guatemala¹s sovereignty. But the country¹s constitutional court has already ruled that it would not. This raises the question: Who is F.R.G. trying to protect? Obviously, not Guatemala¹s citizens. === [Who is the NYT trying to protect, covering up the historic role of the US in backing the genocide and state terrorism in Guatemala? All or most of the military command structure in Guatemala - including those accused of genocide in the Guatemalan and Spanish legal cases - received extensive training in US military schools. The US provided massive military training and weaponry to the Guatemalan military and para-military forces for generations. North American businesses – including the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank – had and maintain extensive economic relations with the undemocratic, unjust governments of Guatemala. Etc. [Who is the NYT trying to protect today? The US and Canadian governments are pushing "free" trade agreements in Guatemala, engaging directly with the FRG party (in power 2000-2004) and the other dominant parties linked to the oligarchy and military. [The Canadian and US governments are pushing for increased access by our mining and resource extraction companies to Guatemala's resources, working and dealing directly with the FRG and other main stream parties. === RIGHTS ACTION is a tax-deductible organization (Canada and the USA) that funds and supports community-based development, environment and human rights organizations in southern Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Haiti, and educates about global development, environmental and human rights issues. [www.rightsaction.org] * Consider coming to Guatemala and Honduras on Rights Action¹s educational-activist delegations to learn more about struggles for global justice, equality and the environment: •••@••.•••; * Get on our e-mail and snail-mail lists: •••@••.•••; DONATE TO INDIGENOUS, COMMUNITY-BASED DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATIONS designing and implementing their own development, human rights and environment project: Make tax-deductible donation to "Rights Action" and mail to: UNITED STATES: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887; CANADA: 422 Parliament St, Box 82552, Toronto ON, M5A 4N8. CREDIT-CARD DONATIONS: www.rightsaction.org. -- -------------------------------------------------------- Posting archives: historical: http://cyberjournal.org/show_archives/?lists=newslog recent: http://groups.google.com/group/newslog/topics Escaping the Matrix website: http://escapingthematrix.org/ cyberjournal website: http://cyberjournal.org How We the People can change the world: http://governourselves.blogspot.com/ Community Democracy Framework: http://cyberjournal.org/DemocracyFramework.html Moderator: •••@••.••• (comments welcome)
