[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 56 (Tuesday, April 8, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E706-E707]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               GUATEMALA

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. DENNIS J. KUCINICH

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, April 8, 2003

  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, in the past year, Guatemala has relapsed 
into some of the same anarchic behavior it demonstrated during its 
brutal civil war from 1960 to 1996, which pitted leftist guerrillas 
against the military and associated right-wing death squads. An 
alarming escalation is now taking place not only in the country's 
general level of violence, but also in the activity of death squads 
linked to the military. There has been an ominous increase in human 
rights violations. HIJOS, a humanitarian organization based in 
Guatemala, released a study on January 29 which reported that 61 young 
people have been murdered in Guatemala City during just the first 3 
weeks of the new year.
  These covert paramilitary groups, which are remnants of the anti-
Communist military and civil institutions that existed during the 
country's bitter civil strife, have reemerged to protect a burgeoning 
drug trade.
  Guatemala's government, led by President Alfonso Portillo, is 
hopelessly mired in corruption, intertwined with illicit activity on 
the part of the military, and is complicit with the expansion of the 
drug trade. Since Portillo took office, drug seizures have decreased 
dramatically. According to a 2001 United Nations Office of Drug and 
Crime (UNODC) study, Guatemala's reported seizure of cocaine steadily 
increased from 956 kg in 1995 to 9,959 kg in 1999. In 2000, however, 
the year after Portillo took office, this trend reversed and the number 
plunged to 1,517 kg of cocaine.
  The country's difficulties with drugs, corruption, and human rights 
abuses are germane because they jeopardize the White House's plans for 
the development of a U.S.-sponsored free-trade agreement with Central 
America. The Bush administration, by decertifying Guatemala but not 
suspending its $53 million in aid, is purposefully misusing the 
decertification process by sacrificing its war on drugs for a potential 
trade accord, continuing aid to the corrupt Portillo regime in order to 
maintain relations with Guatemala at all costs.
  The following research memorandum was authored by Jason Ballet, a 
research associate with the Washington-based Council on Hemispheric 
Affairs (COHA), a nonpartisan, non-profit organization that has been 
long committed to addressing issues associated with democracy and human 
rights throughout the hemisphere.

 Guatemala's Drug Woes and the Misuse of the Drug Certification Program

 (By Jason Ballet, Research Associate, Council on Hemispheric Affairs)

       In the past year, Guatemala has relapsed into some of the 
     same anarchic behavior it demonstrated during its brutal 
     civil war from 1960 to 1996, which pitted leftist guerrillas 
     against the military and associated right-wing death squads. 
     The latter groups were responsible for most of the 200,000 
     deaths that occurred during the conflict. An alarming 
     escalation is now taking place not only in the country's 
     general level of violence, but also in the activity of death 
     squads linked to the military. These groups have reemerged 
     with a new motivation--to protect a burgeoning drug trade. By 
     deferring to the military, a weak government led by Alfonso 
     Portillo is either unwilling or unable to halt rights 
     violations and impede the now booming narcotics trade. The 
     Bush administration, by maintaining normal relations with 
     Guatemala through decertifying it but not suspending its $53 
     million in aid, is sacrificing the drug war in favor of 
     cultivating a free trade agreement with Central America. 
     Today, Portillo's government more closely resembles a 
     ``drugocracy'' than a democracy; it is corrupt, an utter 
     captive of the drug trade, and linked to growing rights 
     violations.


                       The Return of Death Squads

       Rightist death squads have resurfaced, relying on an 
     arsenal of tactics ranging from death threats, to the 
     intimidation of prominent political figures, judges, and 
     human rights activists, and political assassinations. These 
     groups have committed numerous rights violations just within 
     the past month. On January 9, 2003, unidentified gunmen 
     assassinated the former congressional leader and head of the 
     Christian Democrats, Jose Lubon Dubon. A few weeks later, on 
     January 27, assailants attacked the opposition leaders of the 
     National Unity for Hope (UNE) party, resulting in 5 injuries. 
     Furthermore, the Supreme Court of Guatemala recently revealed 
     that more than 130 judges received death threats since 2001. 
     The majority of international and local observers attribute 
     such activities to illegal arms groups.
       High profile assassinations are not a new phenomena in 
     Guatemala, occurring in the thousands during the 1980s. 
     Former foreign Minister Alberto Fuertes Mohr, Myrna Mack, an 
     anthropologist who investigated displaced indigenous 
     populations during the civil war, and Bishop Juan Gerardi, 
     the head of the Guatemalan Archdiocese who published a major 
     Truth Commission study implicating the military in the vast 
     majority of deaths during the war, were all murdered by 
     clandestine groups due to their democratic standing.
       Preliminary statistics recorded this year demonstrate an 
     ominous increase in murder rates compared to the already 
     substantial levels over the past two years. HIJOS, a 
     humanitarian organization based in Guatemala, released a 
     study on January 29 which reported that 61 young people have 
     been murdered in Guatemala City during just the first 3 weeks 
     of the new year. The report explains that ``50 percent of the 
     victims showed a bullet wound to the head,'' indicating that 
     many were premeditated executions designed by organized 
     groups.


               A New Motivation and Portillo's Complicity

       Why have the death squads reemerged? The escalation of 
     violence and the reintroduction of death squads have 
     accompanied an expansion of the drug trade under the tenure 
     of Portillo, beginning in December of 1999. The government is 
     hopelessly mired in corruption and intertwined with illicit 
     activity on the part of the military. Both the military and 
     government are complicit in protecting and expanding the drug 
     trade in Guatemala, from which they handsomely benefit.
       The illegal armed groups now being found in Guatemala are 
     in fact remnants of the anti-Communist military and civil 
     institutions that existed during the country's bitter civil 
     strife of the 1980s. According to a 2002 Canadian Disarmament 
     Information Service (CANDIS) report, retired military 
     officers often transformed their entire units into criminal 
     enterprises. These former soldiers possess intimate knowledge 
     of the nation's facilities that in the past were used in 
     covert operations, such as secluded landing strips, and safe 
     houses for the monitoring of local populations. This 
     knowledge, along with an easy access to weapons, has 
     facilitated the expansion of the drug trade and incidents of 
     political intimidation, making attempts to restrain drug 
     trafficking more difficult.
       These tainted groups are capitalizing on the pivotal 
     geographic location of Guatemala to advance the drug trade. 
     Occupying the southern border of Mexico, it plays a strategic 
     role in trafficking and storing the cocaine being moved from 
     South America to the United States.
       Many of these officials have a history of human rights 
     abuses. The United Nations

[[Page E707]]

     Mission to Guatemala (MINIGUA) observed that ``the army and 
     former military officials are all too often appointed to 
     carry out and supervise strictly civilian work.'' The current 
     president is a protege of Efrain Rios Montt, the former 
     military dictator of the nation from 1982 to l983. The ex-
     general, who now leads the nation's congress, conducted 
     brutal genocide campaigns during the civil war and many 
     believe he still exerts enormous influence on Portillo. Rios 
     Montt's brother, Bishop Mario Rios Montt, became the Catholic 
     Church's new head of its human rights office after the murder 
     of Bishop Gerardi. His appointment created a situation of a 
     radical conflict of interests; Mario Rios Montt's job is to 
     investigate the same rights violations for which his own 
     brother was allegedly responsible while he ruled.
       Portillo has done little to discourage the expansion of the 
     illicit drug trade. Since he took office, drug seizures have 
     decreased dramatically. According to a 2001 United Nations 
     Office of Drug and Crime (UNODC) study, Guatemala's reported 
     seizure of cocaine steadily increased from 956 kg in 1995 to 
     9,959 kg in 1999. In 2000, however, the year after Portillo 
     took office, this trend reversed and the number plunged to 
     1,517 kg of cocaine.
       A corrupt anti-narcotics police force is partially 
     culpable. The scope of the problem, however, extends beyond 
     this inadequate anti-narcotics unit, penetrating deep within 
     Portillo's complicit, corrupt administration. Gabriel 
     Aguilera, Guatemala's vice minister of foreign relations, as 
     cited by the Washington Times on January 31, stated that his 
     own government ``hasn't yet achieved a control of the 
     criminal organizations that are behind these illegal 
     activities.'' Many speculate, including some senior U.S. 
     officials, that Portillo's acknowledged failure to curb the 
     drug trade is no accident and is due to his links to criminal 
     organizations. Otto Reich, the former Assistant Secretary of 
     State for the Western Hemisphere who now has shifted to the 
     National Security Council (NSC), testified before a House 
     subcommittee in October 2002 that since Portillo has taken 
     office, ``narcotics trafficking and alien smuggling are on 
     the rise. Some of the leaders of these activities have very 
     close ties to the highest levels of government and regularly 
     influence decisions, especially with respect to personnel 
     nominations in the military and the ministry of government.''


                         Decertifying Guatemala

       On January 31, President Bush decertified Guatemala, 
     declaring it, along with Haiti (which hardly deserved such 
     treatment) and Burma, to be ``demonstrably failing'' in the 
     past 12 months in their anti-drug efforts. Established in 
     1986 by Congress, the drug certification program annually 
     evaluates whether a foreign nation is cooperating with 
     Washington in its international war on drugs. If decertified, 
     the U.S., according to the program, should have suspended the 
     $3.5 million it contributes to Guatemala's antinarcotics unit 
     and close to $50 million in general assistance it sends 
     annually to the nation.
       The suspensions of Guatemala, Haiti, and Burma, however, 
     were more empty and symbolic than meaningful policy 
     formulations. Burma receives no U.S. aid and President Bush 
     granted Guatemala and Haiti vital national interest waivers, 
     which allows for, despite decertification, the continuation 
     of U.S. aid to each designated country.
       While a strong case can be made for Haiti's waiver on 
     humanitarian grounds (because of the impact on that 
     beleaguered island of benighted U.S. policies), no such case 
     can be made for the continuation of aid to Guatemala. Unlike 
     the latter, Haiti does not have death squads, a president who 
     is indifferent to drug trafficking, or a military which is 
     the prime factor in both rights violations and the drug 
     trade.
       Furthermore, the drug traffickers and the political figures 
     that support the drug trade give minimal credence to the 
     decertification branding, as long as U.S. aid continues. 
     Directly following the announcement, congressional leader 
     Rios Montt declared the U.S.'s negative assessment as an 
     ``eminently political'' maneuver that ``seeks to affect the 
     government but will not have, from any point of view, any 
     social, economic, or financial repercussions.'' Montt 
     correctly, if insolently, affirms that there is essentially 
     no U.S. policy change towards Guatemala. As a result, 
     government activity, including its corrupt practices and 
     complicit actions with organized crime, will continue 
     unimpeded.
       Guatemala's difficulties with drugs, corruption, and rights 
     abuses are germane because they jeopardize the White House's 
     plans for the development of a U.S. sponsored free-trade 
     agreement with five Central American nations: El Salvador, 
     Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala. The U.S. 
     would be hard put to exclude Guatemala from the potential 
     arrangement because it is Central America's most populated 
     nation and is critical to making any free-trade pact a 
     success.
       The Bush administration is purposefully misusing the 
     decertification process by sacrificing its war on drugs for a 
     potential trade agreement, continuing aid to the corrupt 
     Portillo regime in order to maintain relations with Guatemala 
     at all costs.


                               What to do

       Cleaning up Guatemala demands not only the accountability 
     on the part of the Guatemalan government, but the moral 
     fortitude of U.S. authorities to suspend all aid to that 
     country, if need be. Despite potential economic gains, the 
     U.S. cannot establish a free trade pact with Central America 
     until Guatemala reforms and becomes a sound investment, both 
     financially and morally. Guatemala should serve as a warning 
     to Washington as well as to the rest of Latin America of the 
     increasing power and influence of the drug trade and its 
     implications on vulnerable governments throughout the region.

                          ____________________