Taking Note
DM
Consorting with Tyrants U.S. policymakers speak of the inauguration of a new ,era in U.S. Latin America policy in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc. The...
...The Haitian government is sticking to its guns: it wants the documents back with no strings attached...
...In an apparent reversal of Cold War roles, a U.S...
...tax dollars have funded murder in Guatemala...
...government hands have the power to expose the true nature and scope of U.S...
...In early 1995, Rep...
...If the information released so far is any yardstick, however, the U.S...
...In Guatemala, the United States apparently keeps its distance from the military and has encouraged peace negotiations to resolve the country's prolonged civil war...
...Others speculate that they might even provide evidence of an arms pipeline from the Haitian-American community in Miami to the Haitian military-with the knowledge or complicity of the CIA...
...involvement once and for all...
...The government's primary concern is now expanding and strengthening the region's "market democracies...
...The public deserves to know the truth about U.S...
...government, of course, vehemently denies this...
...Documents in U.S...
...We can only speculate about the contents of the documents...
...It offered to hand over the documents on the condition that the names of U.S...
...Yet the U.S...
...public should not expect a full airing of the truth from the IOB final report...
...At least, those are the policies offered for public consumption...
...In the face of the Haitian government's unwillingness to drop the issue, Washington is now trying to strike a bargain...
...On its face, U.S...
...Jennifer Harbury's campaign to find out what happened to her husband, guerrilla commander Efrafn BAmaca VelAsquez, succeeded in piercing that veil...
...government, however, had the arrogance to claim "finders keepers...
...We are left to wonder: what is in the documents that the United States is so afraid of revealing...
...government-and in particular its intelligence services-has been actively collaborating and propping up savage military forces and their paramilitary allies in Haiti and Guatemala...
...The calculus, they say, has changed: collaboration with brutal military rulers in order to keep leftist forces at bay is a thing of the past...
...involvement in the two murders or any related matters...
...government is unwilling to let the relevant documents be scrutinized...
...They would also provide evidence that could be used to prosecute human rights abusers-putting an end to a shameful legacy of impunity...
...The U.S...
...She obtained declassified documents that prove that the CIA was aware of BAmaca's capture, and even paid for information obtained from his interrogation under torture...
...The U.S...
...In this version, the U.S...
...Robert Torricelli went public with classified information that revealed that Col...
...In July, 1995, a four-page summary was the only document made public from a CIA Inspector General's 700-page report on the issue...
...Many believe the documents would reveal an intricate web of complicity between the U.S...
...When the existence of these documents came to light 14 months later, the Aristide administration requested their return...
...activities in Guatemala have also been cloaked under a veil of secrecy...
...In May of this year, the State Department released 5,000 documents, but admitted holding back files which might compromise "intelligence sources and methods...
...invasion restored leftist President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power after efforts to dislodge the military through a negotiated settlement had failed...
...policy towards Haiti and Guatemala reflects the government's decision not to consort with tyrants anymore...
...involvement in Haiti and Guatemala...
...Only full disclosure of the documents will reveal to what extent U.S...
...Haiti and Guatemala are no exceptions to the rule...
...Julio Roberto Alpirez, a Guatemalan military officer on the CIA payroll, directed the torture and murder of BAmaca and the innkeeper Michael DeVine...
...Due to the persistence and determination of human-rights activists like Jennifer Harbury and investigative journalists like Allan Nairn, however, a different story has begun to emerge...
...The irony is that it was precisely the CIA's use of torturers and murderers as "sources" that sparked the public outcry in the first place...
...With the scandal hitting the front pages of the nation's newspapers last year, President Clinton felt compelled to call for a comprehensive review by the Intelligence Oversight Board (IOB) of all government documents which might shed light on possible U.S...
...merican soldiers in Haiti confiscated over 160,000 Documents left behind by the paramilitary group FRAPH and the Haitian army when they fled in haste at the time of the invasion...
...government and the coup regime...
...In any government operation, there is always a paper trail...
...citizens (including Haitian Americans with dual citizenship) be blacked out, and that access to the documents be restricted...
Vol. 30 • July 1996 • No. 1
