Thanks for posting this. Interesting. You said "arguably a policy" that seems to diminish the 200,000+ people who died as a result of a verified and well documented genocide. The Guate government's "scorched earth policy" eliminated over 400 villages--the villages and their fields were burned to the ground. Many of these village's inhabitants faced a death squad (mass graves are still being exhumed). This is all well-documented by the Catholic Archdiocese of Guatemala in the book "Guatemala, Never Again!". This book is a condensed version of an extensive truth and reconciliation documentation process. As for Rios Montt--now that Pinocet is dead, Montt is the number ONE on the list of evil-doers to be brought to justice for war crimes in Latin America. He is a threat to democracy and justice in Guatemala. Rep. Weller's decision to marry Montt's daughter is troubling...as a result he has no credibility in this or any other matter.

If the genocides that were committed during the armed conflict worry the Congressmen of the United States, they should be more concerned about the genocide that UNICEF, Oscar Berger, his wife and Eduardo Stein are willing to commit by making adoptions impossible, knowing very well that without adoptions supporting the private welfare system for children – the only one that exists in Guatemala - thousands and thousands of children will die. There is nothing the US congressmen can do to remedy the past events. But they can prevent another genocide from happening: the killing of the innocent, under the pretense of “protecting the rights of the children”. We beg them to leave alone the past and to help us to give the orphaned and the abandoned children of Guatemala, what every child needs: a permanent loving family.

Well, it's about time that this terrorist disguised as a political "leader" is finally held accountable for the atrocities committed during his 18 months as dictator of Guatemala. Special thanks to representative Tammy Baldwin, from my home state of Wisconsin, for being one of the 30 to sign the letter.

Gregg

Karen,

I agree with you 100% about Rios Montt. My word choice was not intended in any way to dimish the validity that it was a genocide which took place. I'm well read on the atrocities of the war and apologize if my words seemed like anything less than a damnation of the atrocities that occurred!

Kevin
Guatadopt

Perhaps the United States is trying to do the right thing here, at least in one area (although as Susana mentioned, the DOS supporting laws making adoption impossible or extremely difficult will also be a tragedy.)

Looking back at history, the US "owes" Guatemala. It is well-documented that in the 1950s, our government helped overthrow a legitimate, progressive Guatemalan government (the Arbenz government) over blatantly false concerns about communism. Instead, the real goal was to protect the interests of American owned United Fruit company, which owned huge land holdings in Guat and practically all the railroads.

Rios Montt should certainly be held accountable for everything he did, but US interference in Guatemalan politics earlier may have contributed to the instability that allowed him to do what he did.

my undertanding is that the U.S. congress is now debating whether to re-instate military aud to the guatemalan gov't, over which rios-montt still exerts a mighty hand.