[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 138 (Thursday, October 2, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1973-E1974]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           WHITE HOUSE RECERTIFIES AN ILL-DESERVING GUATEMALA

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 2, 2003

  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, a memorandum on Guatemala's many 
problems from the highly respected Washington-based Council on 
Hemispheric Affairs (COHA) was placed in the Congressional Record. The 
following timely memorandum authored by William McIntire, a research 
fellow at COHA, is a continuation of COHA's analysis of the ominous 
situation in Guatemala. COHA, a non-partisan organization that has long 
been committed to addressing issues associated with human rights, 
democracy and economic justice throughout the Western Hemisphere, has 
been referred to by Senator Edward Kennedy a number of years ago as 
``one of our Nation's most respected bodies of scholars and 
policymakers.''

           White House Recertifies an Ill-Deserving Guatemala

             (By William B. McIntire, COHA Research Fellow)

       On Monday, September 15, the White House recommended to 
     Congress that their certification of Guatemala, which was 
     previously revoked due to failure of that country's 
     authorities to be faithful allies in Washington's war on 
     drugs, be renewed. This move, a stunning reversal of a Bush 
     administration decision made last January to decertify for 
     reasons of non-performance, qualifies the country to receive 
     U.S. financial aid to fight drug traffickers. Applied to 
     Guatemala, however, U.S. recertification remains a largely 
     symbolic action as Washington waived all sanctions against 
     Guatemala last January and

[[Page E1974]]

     never halted the flow of aid to that country. Guatemala will 
     now, nevertheless, gain the prestige of being a U.S. ally 
     when it comes to the drug war, when the whole process is 
     actually a sham. Alongside similar actions against Burma and 
     Haiti, the State Department's Bureau for International 
     Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) announced its 
     original decertification decision last January, which was a 
     reflection on the escalating ineffectiveness of Guatemala's 
     counter-narcotics efforts, as a result of President Alfonso 
     Portillo's lackluster performance. The quantity of drugs 
     seized by the Guatemalan government, which was rising 
     annually until Portillo took office, plummeted in 2000 to 
     only 13 percent of the amount seized the year before. In 2002 
     the Guatemalan police reportedly embezzled more than twice 
     the quantity of drugs than they confiscated. The government's 
     patently spurious commitment to the UN-brokered 1996 peace 
     accords was also cited as a basis for Washington's decision 
     to decertify last January. By its present action, the Bush 
     administration graphically shows Latin America that when it 
     comes to Washington's much touted war against drugs, there is 
     no doubt that trade comes first.


              White House Hopes to Change Guatemala's Ways

       In his briefing on the president's certification 
     determination, INL Acting Assistant Secretary Paul Simons 
     observed that last year's ``suspension of assistance to 
     Guatemala would result in further deterioration of precisely 
     those Guatemalan institutions that are essential to combating 
     the influence of organized crime.'' As a result, the State 
     Department decided that, despite its decision to decertify 
     Guatemala, financial sanctions that would normally accompany 
     such a decision would not be exercised because they would 
     only further undermine the country's already highly 
     delicate democratic institutions.
       More directly, President Bush's decision to rescind last 
     January's largely symbolic decertification will be an obvious 
     effort to woo Guatemala, which has the region's largest 
     population and economy, into supporting a Central American 
     Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). CAFTA is a prototype of 
     Washington's Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) scheme, 
     which has been one of its highest priorities, and because of 
     Guatemala's economic significance, it is a prime target for 
     Washington's courtship. As a result, Bush's drug war is being 
     crucified on the cross of free trade. Thus, it comes as no 
     surprise that the Bush administration would not permit a 
     small matter like Guatemala's abysmal drug interdiction 
     record of late to jeopardize the achievement of CAFTA. As 
     negotiations for the trade pact continue, Washington has also 
     received criticism for not pursuing strong labor and 
     environmental regulations as part of its core.


                   CAFTA: Is it Worth the Sacrifice?

       To the chagrin of some in Washington, Guatemala's 
     Constitutional Court recently gave former dictator Efrain 
     Rios Montt its blessing to run for the presidency despite a 
     constitutional provision that bars all coup participants from 
     doing so. Rios Montt rose to power during a military coup in 
     March 1982 and promptly set about a ``scorched earth'' 
     campaign, murdering thousands of Mayan peasants. U.S. 
     Ambassador to Guatemala John R. Hamilton has publicly warned 
     that U.S. relations with Guatemala would be compromised if 
     Rios Montt made his way back to power. Still, in the face of 
     reaching a free trade accord, the recertification of 
     Guatemala reveals the true stripes of Washington's foreign 
     policy, and the insignificance it accords to the anti-drug 
     war and the rising human rights toll in Guatemala. In the 
     name of Washington's free trade blitzkrieg, the White House 
     has sacrificed the integrity of its professedly unwavering 
     commitment to fight corruption and drugs in the very same 
     Central American countries in which it allegedly endeavors to 
     expand democracy, while promoting its all-important trade 
     accord.


    More Holes Than Swiss Cheese in White House Recertification of 
                               Guatemala

       On Monday, September 15, the White House, using doctored 
     information and skimpy statistics, recommended to Congress 
     the recertification of Guatemala, reversing a Bush 
     administration decision made last January in response to the 
     dramatic evidence of Guatemala's failure to meaningfully 
     cooperate with Washington's anti-drug efforts. 
     Recertification would normally qualify the newly reaccredited 
     country to receive U.S. financial aid. However, for 
     Guatemala, it remains a largely symbolic action, since 
     Washington originally had waived all sanctions against the 
     country, maintaining the flow of bilateral aid in the 
     interest of preserving what meager anti-narcotics operations 
     that remain active in the country. Shortly after the original 
     decertification, 21 members of the U.S. Congress asserted 
     that, until Guatemala was recertified as the result of 
     a dramatically improved drug interdiction record, they 
     would not vote to ratify the Central American Free Trade 
     Agreement (CAFTA).
       In his Monday memorandum to the State Department President 
     Bush, using self-obfuscating language, touted Guatemala's 
     ``willingness to better its counternarcotics practices,'' but 
     shied away from coming forth with any evidence to support it. 
     Instead, the country was merely omitted from a section of the 
     memorandum listing nations that had ``failed demonstrably . . 
     . to adhere to their obligations under international 
     counternarcotics agreements.'' Whereas Guatemala, Haiti and 
     Myanmar had been blacklisted in January, only the latter two 
     remained in the September 15 statement. The Bush 
     administration, understandably sheepish when it came to 
     recertifying Guatemala only months after decertifying it, and 
     with no tangible evidence to justify doing so, camouflaged 
     the announcement in the memorandum, hoping not to draw too 
     much attention to its actions. The underhanded nature of this 
     decision represents a massive downgrading of the authenticity 
     of both Washington's and Guatemala's supposed anti-drug 
     efforts. Guatemala would certainly not qualify for 
     certification if actually put to even a minimally objective 
     test. In making its determination, Washington proved once 
     again that its certification process was little better than a 
     total sham.


                        A White House Deception

       Since the White House decertified Guatemala last January, 
     the DEA observed that the country had become the ``preferred 
     Central American location for storage and consolidation of 
     drug loads,'' and boats and light aircraft regularly bring 
     drugs into the country. The official White House report had 
     to acknowledge that Guatemala's alleged improvements were 
     only the ``initial steps'' that had to be taken and the 
     ``permanence of these improvements had yet to be 
     determined.'' In other words, no significant steps have been 
     made to curtail the flow of narcotics through Guatemala. 
     Meanwhile, the White House is concerned mainly with 
     fulfilling its free trade aspirations in Central America and 
     realizes that they would not likely be achieved if Guatemala 
     remains uncertified. Thus ignoring the true deficiency of 
     Guatemala's anti-drug efforts, the Bush administration is 
     trying to slyly sweep its failed anti-drug campaign in the 
     country under the rug, caricaturing the entire certification 
     process just as the Clinton administration did with Mexico in 
     1997. As with the present Bush administration, free trade 
     logistics, specifically the North American Free Trade 
     Agreement (NAFTA), rather than a faithful evaluation of that 
     country's anti-drug performance, were the order of the day.
       President Bush expects ``Guatemala to continue its efforts 
     and to demonstrate further progress in the coming year,'' 
     apparently hoping that recertification will self-
     prophetically lead to increased cooperation with his war on 
     drugs, a trend he claims erroneously in the memorandum has 
     already been manifest in the recent attitude of Guatemalan 
     authorities. Interestingly, only hours before the White House 
     announcement, Guatemalan officials announced that they had 
     just seized record quantities of drugs, perhaps hoping to 
     gull some ingenues into believing that interdictions had 
     reacquired past levels. Suspiciously, no arrests had been 
     made, nor statistics cited, to reinforce this claim. Some 
     allege that previously seized drugs had been recycled and 
     ``seized'' again to create the false pretense of successful 
     interdiction.
       By spinning the facts of Guatemala's performance (pointing 
     to the country's supposedly renewed dedication to counter-
     narcotics efforts) and continuing to use the certification 
     process as a political weapon, the White House risks further 
     disenchanting its remaining hemispheric allies in its fading 
     war against drug traffickers.

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