NACLA - Goes to the Source
B., G.
This summer, two NACLA staffers made separate trips to Central America, under circumstances that provided rare access to those who rule the bloodiest regimes in the region: Guatemala and El...
...The delegation was headed by former Iowa Senator Dick Clark, and was organized by the Washington D.C.-based Commission on U.S.-Central American Relations...
...Janet Shenk spent two weeks this summer in El Salvador and Honduras, as a member of a citizens' delegation examining the political and human rights situation in those two countries...
...Not surprisingly, the delegation's findings contrasted sharply with the Administration's claims of improved conditions in El Salvador...
...He met with Army officers in charge of planning the government's "guns and beans" counterinsurgency and civic action program, and spent two days filming with the Army on maneuvers in the northwestern department of El Quiche, a guerrilla stronghold...
...The delegation's visit to El Salvador was timed to coincide with the State Department's perfunctory deliberations on whether to "certify" that El Salvador has improved its human rights record and made progress on reforms...
...In the course of his ten-day trip, George interviewed North American pastors of the Christian Church of the Word, an evangelical mission Septl0ct 198 of Gospel Outreach, based in Eureka, California, that boasts President Rios Montt as its bestknown convert...
...NACLA previously had collaborated with the BBC on a documentary studying the impact of the film "Missing" on U.S.public opinion...
...George Black traveled to Guatemala as a consultant to the British Broadcasting Corporation's Religious Affairs Unit, preparing a documentary on General Rios Montt's attempt to use evangelical Christianity as a vehicle for stabilizing military rule...
...He also conducted an extensive interview with Rios Montt, and met with the leader of Guatemala's Christian Democratic Party, Vinicio Cerezo...
...What follows are some impressions from these two trips, based on extensive interviews with government, military and Church officials, and, to a lesser extent, given the dangers, with opposition sources in Guatemala and El Salvador...
...While part of the delegation went on to Honduras, to visit the camps housing thousands of Salvadorean refugees, the rest of the group came back to Washington to testify at hearings on certification, held by the House Subcommittee on InterAmerican Affairs...
...This summer, two NACLA staffers made separate trips to Central America, under circumstances that provided rare access to those who rule the bloodiest regimes in the region: Guatemala and El Salvador...
Vol. 16 • September 1982 • No. 5
