Untitled Flashcards Set

CIA and genocide in Guatemala—Harris

1) President Clinton’s apology on Guatemala/Historical Clarification Commission

2) Bishop Gerardi

3) Description of violence and genocide in Guatemala

4) CIA’s “Study of Assassination”

5) Project X; torture manuals

6) Phoenix Program

7) Operation Condor (See Topics for Reading)

8) Jennifer Harbury

“it was heaven that they burned”—Grandin

1) Rigoberta Menchu

• Guatemalan refugee who told her story to the French media

2) Description of military killing of Guatemalans, including children

• Focus on terrorizing

3) Military repression against the Catholic church

• Christians were killed

4) Guatemalan military’s color strategy

• “white” spared

• “pink” suspected guerrillas and their supporters were to be killed but the communities left standing; 

• “red” gave no quarter—all were to be executed and villages destroyed

Dianna Ortiz—NYT

1) Description of torture of Dianna Ortiz

• Abducted, gang-raped, and tortured by a Guatemalan security force

• Burned by cigarettes

• Suspended over a pit of bodies

• Murder another woman

2) Who was it that called Ortiz’s ordeal “a hoax?”

• American and Guatemalan officials

3) What effect did Ortiz’s case have on the US government?

• became part of a sweeping review of American foreign policy and covert action in Guatemala during the Reagan, Bush and Clinton administrations

CIA in Guatemala—Immerman

1) CIA strategy to overthrow Arbenz

• 480 CIA trained soldiers entered Guatemala to over through

• Backed by the US

2) Army of Liberation

• intended to frighten both the government and the people into accepting a Castillo Armas victory

3) CIA use of Catholic church in operation

• Majority of Guatemalans were illiterate so the Catholic church was used to disseminate information

4) US use of “big lie” technique

• Used a Nazi technique

5) Voice of Liberation/“Trabajo, pan, y patria” (JS: = “Work, bread, and country”)

• Anti-Arbenz group backed by the US

6) Guatemala’s foreign minister at the UN/US Ambassador Lodge/Eisenhower administration’s

response to Guatemala’s complaint

• Opposed bring Guatemala’s complaints to the UN

7) US tactics in operation (as use of explosions, fake news, etc.)

8) Soviet Union on Guatemalan complaint at UN/Honduras, Nicaragua on complaint

• Only country to support Guatemala

9) Chief of Guatemalan Armed Forces Enrique Diaz

• Arbenz promised the government to if he could guarantee no negotiations with Armas 

10) Caracas Conference

• Inter-American Conference of Latin American

11) Elfego Monzon

• Gaven power by Diaz

3 Articles on Guatemala

1) MR-13

• anti-government/ anti-CIA group founded by Guatemalan left-wing military officers

2) revolt against Ydigoras

• Revolt against the dictatorship of Ydigoras

3) Kekchi (Panzos) massacre

• Guatemalan soldiers opened fire on against a village of indigenous people

• Government blamed Castro and priests/nuns

4) US overthrow of Ydigoras; what happened, give reasons why

• Overthrown by Peralta, US didn’t support Ydigoras - he wanted a free election, but could possibly allow Arevalo to return to power

5) Col. John D. Webber

• Took command of US military in Guatemala after Mendez won election

6) Description of killing and torture of Guatemalan people

• Homes broken into

• Mutilated and burned bodies

• Bodies dropped from airplanes into the ocean

• Decaptated and castrated corpses, pins stuck in eyes

• Villages were bulldozed over

7) AID/OPS/Alliance for Progress

• US programs working in Guatemala to expand the national police force

8) US School of the Americas

• Trained Guatemalan officers with American techniques