Guatamela: The Paragon
Jamail, Milton & Gutierrez, Margo
A PRODUCER FOR CBS'S SIXTY MINUTES, who had set up camp last January at Guatemala City's Camino Real Hotel, was sharing his views around the pool. Israeli involvement in Guatemala is "old news,"...
...Latin American Regional Reports: Mexico and Central America, January 13, 1984, p. 8 . 18...
...Military Presence in Central America (Philadelphia, PA: NARMIC, 1985), p.18...
...Kami in Ha'aretz...
...This was confirmed by Benedicto Lucas Garcia in 1986...
...South Africa is reportedly advising on resettlement aspects of counterinsurgency...
...The arms dealer has subsequently been identified as Pesakh Ben Or...
...Lucas by Yoav Kami in Ha'aretz (Tel Aviv) February 7, 1986...
...Latin America's support for Israel in the 1940s was MARCH/APRIL 198732 MARCH/APRIL 1987 31 The Israeli Connection Deadly Trade A NUMBER OF ISRAEL'S MAJOR ARMS dealers are known to have acted as intermediaries and "cut-outs," or fronts in Israeli deals with the contras...
...Tipped off by British intelligence, the local police inspected the plane and found 26 tons of arms and ammunition from Israel...
...Ben Or told the Israeli daily Ma'ariv that he had arranged Israeli supplies for the Guatemalan Army's communications and electronics school in 1981.' The Washington Post notes that "Ben Or was a key figure in supplying Israeli arms and military communications equipment to Guatemala after the Carter Administration's cutoff in the late 1970s...
...Whatever the model, the forced relocation of hundreds of thousands of Guatemalans can only be seen as a massive effort at social control...
...2. Transcript, CBS Evening News, February 16, 1983...
...Were Southern Air Transport planes filing flight plans for Guatemala while actually landing at El Salvador's Ilopango air field...
...In February 1983 anchorman Dan Rather said "Israel has helped [Guatemala] wage a war with no questions asked...
...Miami Herald, December 1,1986 4. Washington Post, December 12, 1986 5. Davar, November 14, 1979 in Israel Shahak, Israel's Global Role(Belmont, MA: Association of Arab-American University Graduates,1982), p. 17 6. Ma'ariv, (Tel Aviv), November 27, 1986 in FBIS-ME-A, December1, 1986...
...SIPRI calculates that between 1975 and 1979, 39% of Guatemala's weapons imports were from Israel...
...Benedicto Lucas Garcia noted that the Army school was a "positive step," and that Guatemala had been brought up-to date militarily, "thanks to the advice and transfer of electronic technology" from Israel...
...The Guatemalans are familiar with efforts toward massive social control such as in South Africa, the "strategic hamlets" employed by the United States in Vietnam and the French experience in Algiers...
...The use of Guatemala as a trampoline for weapons to the contras violates President Vinicio Cerezo's policy of "active neutrality...
...Translated in Al-Fajr-Jerusalem Palestinian Weekly English edition (Washington, D.C...
...7. Houston Chronicle, January 26, 1982...
...LTHOUGH SOMOZA'S AID TO THE Zionists in the 1930s and and 1940s has been written about, Guatemala played a much more significant and open role in the creation of the state of Israel...
...Eduardo Wohlers, a leading figure in the counterinsurgencypacification effort who was recently named head of the Air Force commented "The model of the kibbutz is planted firmly in the minds of my officials...
...3 3 At the time of the takeover, Tel Aviv newspapers reported there were 300 Israeli advisers in Guatemala...
...While providing arms and advisers, the Israelis do not dominate the war effort, as the United States attempts to do in El Salvador...
...Ciceres Rojas' signature was found on eight end-user certificates of contra-bound weapons...
...In the 1960s when Guatemala was first confronted with a strong guerrilla movement, the military was making use of counterinsurgency skills "made in America...
...Were end-user certificates signed by Guatemalan officials with the weapons going to Honduras or El Salvador for use by the contras...
...Although the new civilian government of President Vinicio Cerezo has pledged to curb security force abuses, it has made little progress...
...5. Bishara Bahbah, Israel and Latin America: The Military Connection (New York: St...
...While most deliveries draw little attention in Guatemala, the sale of heavy military equipment is easier to detect...
...2' Beit-Hallahmi, in an 1983 interview, commented on the Israeli-developed computer system that can zero in on buildings using large amounts of electricity and water at night: "The idea is that in a building in Guatemala City where electricity is used at night there is some sort of clandestine meeting going on or an illegal printing press operating...
...An essential component in the laundering process of clandestine arms deals are "end-user certificates"-documents which state that a particular country is the final destination for weapons...
...18, no.4 (November 1985), p. 3 . 24...
...Testifying at congressional hearings on May 12, former national security adviser Robert C. MARCH/APRIL 1987 35 The Israeli Connection McFarlane confirmed that Guatemala had signed false end-user certificates covering-the purchase of nearly $8 million worth of munitions to be delivered to the Nicaraguan Democratic Force (FDN...
...8 That year Great Britain persuaded the United States to hold back on sales to Guatemala, which was threatening the neighboring British colony, Belize...
...2 2 Israeli social scientist Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi notes that in Guatemala "utilization of computers in counterinsurgency follows the Israeli experience of MARCWAPRIL 1987 33 The Israeli Connection using the same technology to control the occupied territories...
...The military must use both force to stop dissent, and also plan for long-range social control...
...Jerusalem Post, January 19, 1987...
...With a suite of offices in Guatemala City's Cortijo Reforma Hotel-directly across from Army headquarters-Ben Or is Israel's top salesman in Guatemala and is reported to earn more than $1.5 million annually...
...As military officials point out, Israeli military advisers teach courses about other counterinsurgency experiences...
...Rodolfo Lobos Zamora, now ambassador to Panama...
...Guardian (London), December 29, 1981...
...Edgar D'jalma Dominguez, commented: "When the United States cut off our aid, we were forced to look for solutions, so we began by making bullets and rifle parts...
...The Guatemalan Navy told CBS in early 1987 that it never received the Dabur patrol boats (interview with "Sixy Minutes" producer, Guatemala City, January 7, 1987...
...Julio Perez, chief of logistics in the Honduran Army's Ordinance Corps, to the Israeli Defense Ministry, but other arms dealers said the shipments ended up with the contras...
...Enfoprensa (Washington, D.C...
...The Guatemalans do not hide their gratitude...
...9 In 1985 Guatemalan Army Col...
...Israel filled in by delivering a number of Arava aircraft, Uzi submachine guns and a variety of heavier arms including bazookas.' In 1977, Guatemala once again turned to Israel...
...others have been instructed at home by Israeli personnel...
...The bottom line is that Israel contributes to Guatemalan state terrorism through its aid and advice...
...As early as 1979, The Nation reported that "the Guatemalans have equipped their ten Aravas with forward-firing machine guns and underwing carriers for gunships...
...4 As long as Israel continues to supply weapons and advice to retard the development of democratic forces, one can safely assume that many Guatemalans will increasingly view Israel as an enemy...
...Guardian (London), December 29, 1981...
...Latin American Regional Reports: Mexico and Central America, May 6, 1983, p. 8 . 44...
...Administrations will continue to exploit the issue's sensitive nature, further discouraging debate of U.S...
...Houston Chronicle, October 21, 1983...
...The computer system has a dual purpose: first, to track the activities of guerrillas, and second, to coordinate all of Guatemala's security forces...
...Argentine and Chilean personnel gave advice, mainly in urban counterinsurgency and police intelligence.35 Taiwan, South Korea and Portugal sold ammunition...
...Included in the equipment were spare parts for the country's U.S.-made helicopter fleet...
...Jane Hunter, No Simple Proxy (Washington, D.C.: Washington Middle East Associates, 1987), p. 18...
...Black, Report on the Americas, p. 43...
...By 1986, Guatemala had reportedly received helicopters, three Dabur patrol boats, hundreds of tons of light arms and ammunition, bazookas, 81-mm mortars, grenade launchers and Uzi submachine guns.'" A KEY TOOL IN UPGRADING THE EFFIciency of the Guatemalan police and military has been the use of sophisticated computer technology...
...March 8, 1985, p.2...
...Although Israel points to its early "special relationship," it is important to note that the relationship was initiated by a progressive government in the context of what the Guatemalans perceived as an anti-colonial struggle in Palestine...
...TO WHAT EXTENT HAS GUATEMALA aided the Israelis in providing military supplies to the contras...
...It is in the counterinsurgency effort in the countryside that the Israeli contribution has been the most pronounced...
...Washington Post, December 12, 1986 7. Middle East International, (London) April 3, 1987 8. Miami Herald, December 1, 1986...
...Central America Report, December 14, 1984, p. 386...
...6. George Black, "Israeli Connection: Not Just Guns for Guatemala," Report on the Americas, Vol...
...Pesakh Ben Or, based in Guatemala and Miami, sold three shipments of arms-rocket-propelled grenade launchers, grenades, assault rifles and ammunition-to the contras through the Honduran military...
...2: State Terror and Popular Resistance in Guatemala (London: Zed Press, 1985), p. 194...
...Guardian (London), December 29, 1981...
...The following year, a Guatemala City political and business leader told the Los Angeles Times, "We're isolated internationally...
...In facing a broad-based popular movement, the Guatemalan military has come to resemble the Israelis on the West Bank and Gaza: it is an occupying Army...
...However, Israel-which provided the bulk of aid and advice--earns the greatest admiration...
...They set up their intelligence network, tried and tested on the West Bank and Gaza, designed simply to beat the guerrilla...
...In early 1984, Guatemala purchased 12,000 rifles from Israel...
...Diario de Centro America, November 5, 1981...
...Carlos Anibal M6ndez Cabrera, who is in charge of the school, explained that "teaching methods, the teaching teams, the technical instruments, books, and even the custom furniture were designed and built by the Israeli company DEGEM Systems...
...p.7...
...The producer was right, Guatemala is no longer the cutting edge of the story, but it was for much of the early 1980s, and although covered in the United States, few seemed to notice...
...Latin American Regional Reports: Mexico and Central America, December 2, 1983...
...as well as more traditional military tactics...
...If the Israeli role is not discussed openly and honestly, U.S...
...The situation has changed considerably in the ensuing 40 years...
...Soon the standard-issue Garand M-1 was replaced by the Israeli Galil assault rifle, and to this day Israel remains Guatemala's main supplier...
...The Army Transmissions and Electronics School, inaugurated by President Romeo Lucas Garcia in 1981, was "designed, staffed and funded by Israelis...
...Ibid 11...
...Without the partition plan, "Israel would not have been created, because at that time Jews were only 35.1 percent of the population of Palestine and owned only 7 percent of the land...
...2 6 While the technology for this operation was provided by Israel, it Civil defense, Guatemala is likely that its usage was taught by Chilean and Argentine advisers...
...Another former chief of staff, General Benedicto Lucas Garcia, brother of the former president, has been even more forthcoming, noting that Israel "was the only country that gave us military support in our battle against the guerrillas...
...February 14, 1986...
...Today it is an alliance between an Israel which wants or needs to please Washington, requires a market for its weaponry and seeks allies at the UN, and MARCH/APRIL 1987 32 Ben Or, arms trader a repressive Guatemala which needs military assistance...
...1986), p.63...
...Congressional hearings and disgruntled contras could fill in the details...
...9. Central America Report (Guatemala), December 14, 1984, p.386...
...The tactics involved civic-action programs (feeding people and building roads in areas of guerrilla activity...
...A casual visitor to Guatemala today would probably not detect Israeli military involvement...
...Indeed, Guatemalan officers have been told by their Israeli counterparts and trainers to "treat the Indians like we treat the Palestinians-don't trust any of them," according to one source...
...11 (November 1984), p. 4. 39...
...One was set up to serve 'G-4'-the Army's logistic branch with which most of the departments of the General Command in the Presidential Palace are connected...
...Diario de Centro America (Guatemala City), November 5, 1981...
...It has been confirmed that Israel shipped arms through Portugal to Central America...
...Guardian (London), December 29, 1981...
...Excelsior (Mexico City), April 28, 1984...
...Embassy, the taxi passes Magnum Security, a private Israeli firm specializing in personal protection for Guatemala's wealthy...
...Tom Buckley, Violent Neighbors: El Salvador, Central America and the United States (New York: Times Books, 1984), p.261...
...CBS News and The New York Times, citing State Department and U.S...
...But it would be more accurate to say that in Guatemala the independent foreign policy agendas of Israel and the United States coincide quite neatly...
...7 He is a close friend of former Guatemalan Army Chief of Staff General Rodolfo Lobos Zamora and of 1985 presidential candidate Jorge Carpio Nicole...
...intelligence officials, have stated that the Israelis have provided intelligence assistance...
...Due to the complex and secret nature of the arrangements, the precise connection will never be known...
...Boletin SIAG (Mexico City), No.34 (March 2, 1985), p. 3 . 40...
...In 1947, faced with growing Arab resistance to Zionist plans to create a Jewish state in Palestine, Great Britain turned the issue over to the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine...
...They taught the Guatemalans how to build an air base...
...When asked if he was refering to the Arava, he affirmed, "Yes, to Arava planes...
...8. Michael McClintock, The American Connection, Vol...
...As the plane taxis after landing at La Aurora airport, two Israeli Arava aircraft can be seen on the right while on the left a soldier in full combat gear jogs along the runway, carrying an Israeli Galil rifle...
...the Israelis tell them how to better accomplish their aim...
...Israeli Foreign Affairs, Vol.1, no.1 (December 1984), p.8...
...After 1977, when Washington no longer provided training, the Guatemalans adapted U.S...
...at the time Sherwood was selling arms to the contras...
...Benedicto Lucas Garcia claims "Israel provided us with advisers who helped us use the military equipment we purchased from Israel...
...Yet by December 1983, the head of Army public relations, Col...
...I think it would be fascinating to turn our highlands into that kind of system...
...Actually, CBS News broke the mainstream media ice some four years earlier...
...Amos Gil'ad, another senior Sherwood employee and a former Israeli transport officer, introduced Gerard Latchinian to Ben Or...
...4. Interview with Gen...
...The campaign was successful and the movement was seriously, if temporarily, set back...
...But the Israeli view is shortsighted...
...Guatemala became the second country, after the United States, to recognize the state of Israel and in 32MARCH/APRIL 1987 chauffeur...
...There is no doubt that while in office Generals Oscar Mejia Victores (1983-1986...
...Quite simply, Israeli aid makes it easier for the military to implement its police-state agenda...
...Col...
...3. Enfoprensa (Washington, D.C...
...Cynthia Arnson, "Israel and Central America," New Outlook, March/April 1984, p. 2 0 . 20...
...IT WOULD BE EASY TO CONCLUDE THAT ISrael is simply acting as U.S...
...There is no question that Israel has been instrumental in enabling Guatemalan security forces to carry out a more efficient counterinsurgency policy...
...Kami in Ha'aretz...
...Ben Or also handled the Israeli sale of 12,500 secondhand rifles for Guatemala's civilian defense forces, a delivery halted temporarily by U.S...
...International Arms Transfers to Central America Since 1969," Update (Washington, D.C.: Central American Historical Institute), Vol.3, no.21 (July 9, 1984), p. 3 . 14...
...28 The Guatemalans, however, are less circumspect...
...This Week: Central America and Panama (Guatemala City), October 25, 1982...
...Benedicto Lucas Garcia said Israeli "advisers set up a munitions factory for us and after building it, trained us to operate it...
...While the Israelis have consistently denied or underGuatemalan soldier with Galil played their involvement, Guatemalan military leaders have not...
...New York Times, December 17, 1982...
...Switzerland provided training aircraft which were MARCH/APRIL 1987 34 Galil Training In Guatemala quickly converted to military use.' Training in psychological warfare came from Taiwan...
...Cynthia Amson, "Arms Race in Central America," The Nation, March 10, 1979, p.267...
...He was also employed by ISDS, an Israeli "security expertise" exporter...
...Little by little, we will be able to supply all our own arms...
...B EYOND PROVIDING ARMS, TRAINERS and technology, Israel was involved in the financing and development of Central America's only arms and munitions factory, which produces Galil rifles...
...Among Guatemala's major purchases are 17 Arava aircraft, used extensively in counterinsurgency.'" Israel Aircraft Industries describes it as a "passenger/cargo versatile aircraft that solves the transportation problem of inaccessible developing regions," and adds, "it also enables police units to control more effectively large areas with small units having limited ground transport...
...Israel offered courses, texts and documents that explained why the United States and Great Britain failed in Indochina and Malaysia...
...Author's interview, San Diego, CA, February 26, 1981...
...The United States had cut off military aid in response to a "consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights...
...Israel is motivated by its own survival instincts...
...Transcript, CBS Evening News, February 16, 1983...
...Ma'ariv, November 27, 1986 in FBIS-ME-A, December 1, 1986 14...
...Karni in Ha'aretz...
...6 Ben Or, 36, is a former Israeli Defense Forces paratrooper who learned his trade as David Marcus Katz's critical, since it constituted a third of the then 60-member United Nations General Assembly...
...0 Pinhas Dagan, a representative of IAI for the territory between Mexico and Colombia, was a senior employee at the Sherwood International Export Corp...
...The Guatemalans know what they want to do...
...In March 1982, Gen...
...Israeli government officials claimed that the rifles "were not a government-to-government transaction," and added that they were sold by a former partner of David Marcus Katz, Israel Aircraft Industries representative in Mexico...
...Black, Report on the Americas, p.44...
...Boston Globe, August 26, 1979...
...Shortly after the Guatemalans acquired this new technology, a number of guerrilla safe houses in the capital city were discovered during the summer of 1981.27 SRAEL DENIES PROVIDING ADVISERS TO Guatemala...
...events in Central America are really of little importance...
...As one long-time observer put it: "The tyrannies which count Israel among their benefactors will not last forever, and thus make unreliable allies, while Israeli participation in the brutality perpetrated by these regimes is not easily forgotten by its victims...
...San Antonio Light, December 28, 1983...
...Ben Or presented documents of sale bearing the signature of Col...
...The extent of involvement remains a question...
...Martin's...
...In 1981 Israel's ambassador to Guatemala, Moshe Dayan (no relation to the late defense minister), hailed the country as "one of our best friends...
...The committee recommended an end to the British mandate over Palestine and proposed, with Garcia Granados' strong support, the principle of partition...
...National Public Radio reported on December 6, 1986 that the contras received aid from Israel through the Honduran and Guatemalan militaries, and that recent contacts in Israel between contra leaders and the Israeli government were unusual since they normally occurred at the Israeli Embassy in Guatemala City...
...But now the factory is being run by Guatemalans...
...2 ' Expressing his appreciation for Israel's assistance, Gen...
...policy...
...Thus Israel's own model provides a prototype for solving the Guatemalan military's problems...
...We do not have even a military attache and we do not have advisers here...
...The lead paragraph of a December 12, 1986 Washington Post story on the Israeli arms industry observes: "Today Guatemalan troops wear Israeli uniforms, tote Israeli automatic rifles and conduct counterinsurgency operations learned from Israeli instructors...
...There has been no authoritative figure of the number of Israeli personnel in the country since that time...
...Israeli involvement in Guatemala is "old news," he said, the cutting edge of the Central America story was Honduran aid for the contras...
...Did Israeli weapons actually pass through Guatemala...
...San Antonio Light, December 28, 1983...
...David Ferreira, "Guatemala: Unholy Allies," Africasia, No...
...On the way into town, just across from the U.S...
...Emil Sa'ada, a former employer of Latchinian, was identified by Honduran military sources as one of two former Israeli military men who had "helped arrange" arms shipments to the contras in deals dating back to 1984.' Yehuda Leitner, the second Israeli named by the Hondurans, worked for one of Sa'ada's Honduran operations...
...In late 1984 and early 1985, he "made an undetermined number of sales of Israeli-owned weapons" to the contras.' Ya'acov Nimrodi, who joined Schwimmer in setting up the Iran "initiative," was Israel's military attache in Iran from 1955-1979.2 Through a company he owns in the United States, Nimrodi handled contra arms shipments paid for with an Israeli government donation of several million dollars, made at the request of then CIA Director William Casey...
...journalist: "We would rather sell them toys, I assure you, but it is weapons they want to buy, and we have to keep making weapons to remain an efficient source of supply for our own Army...
...Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Yearbook 1980, p. 97...
...A combat tank produced in the plant, called the Armadillo, is reportedly resistant to guerrilla land mines...
...customs officials in Florida, and has arranged jobs for former Israeli soldiers as body guards for Guatemalan politicians...
...Close by is an Army complex housing an Israeli computer system installed in the early 1980s...
...What had been a secret trade became public a few months later when the government of Barbados seized a ship loaded with 65 tons of Israeli guns destined for Guatemala.'o Later that year, a private plane travelling from Portugal 'I Guatemala landed in Bridgetown, Barbados for emergency repairs...
...Al Schwimmer, who founded the state-owned Aircraft Industries (IAI), is reputed to be one of Israel's biggest arms dealers...
...3 (May/June 1983), p.44...
...The state-owned Israel Aircraft Industries and private weapons and electronics firms represented by Ben Or set up a munitions factory in Guatemala's Alta Verapaz department...
...Latin America Weekly Report, August 6, 1982...
...The Israelis need export markets and wish to preserve their diplomatic advantage as Washington's "strategic asset...
...death-squad terror designed to discourage participation with the guerrillas and to obtain information...
...The earliest reports of the existence of a munitions plant were vehemently denied...
...The report added that Israel had provided Guatemala with automatic weapons, helmets, troop transports and other equipment...
...D'jalma Domfnguez has said the factory will one day build grenade launchers...
...3 An earlier report in the European and Guatemalan press placed the number of shipments at 15 and said the arms were from Israel...
...A few blocks further down Avenida Reforma is the Hotel Cortijo Reforma, headquarters of the region's largest Israeli arms dealer, Pesakh Ben Or (see box...
...4 9 Now the factory produces 70% of the parts needed to manufacture Israeli-designed Galil rifles, as well as mortars and an armor-plating process for military vehicles...
...arms embargo-sells weapons to Guatemala, an Israeli Embassy official in Guatemala told a U.S...
...Washington Post, January 21, 1982...
...Serving as a special assistant to his close friend Prime Minister Shimon Peres in 1985, Schwimmer was one of the first Israelis involved in the scheme to sell weapons to Iran...
...Bishara A. Bahbah, "Israel's Privte Arms Network," Middle EastReport, January-February 1987 12...
...In a 1985 interview, a Guatemalan military officer commented: "Israel gave us the initial support that we need to face the problem of subversion...
...While officers point to the kibbutz model, the Guatemalan application in "model villages" is a perversion of the Israeli kibbutz, "where everyone is expected to work and share equally in the decision making," and it is by no means the only example employed in the design and construction of Guatemala's "model villages...
...Israel helped us set up two computer centers-not one...
...The Israelis deny some aspects of their involvement, have no comment on other parts and explain away the rest by citing their "special relationship...
...proxy in Guatemala...
...Rarihokwats, Guatemala: The Horror and the Hope (York, PA: Four Arrows, 1982), p.10 6 . 12...
...Byron Lima, now commander of the military base at Poptun, told a Wall Street Journal reporter that he "greatly admires the Israelis as 'warriors' and hopes that his own countrymen will become more like them...
...24 Today in Guatemala, something as ordinary as renting an apartment is subject to a computerized "subversion check...
...LTHOUGH IT IS DIFFICULT TO PREDICT future Israeli military involvement in Central America, it seems clear that the Israeli role is growing...
...The only friend we have left in the world is Israel.'' 7 ALTHOUGH GUATEMALAN MILITARY OFficials visited Israel as early as 1964, it was not until after a 1975 trip-ostensibly seeking assistance for agricultural co-operatives--that Israel became a major source of arms for Guatemala...
...Interview conducted by Jane Hunter 15...
...When asked why Israel-in view of the U.S...
...And they didn't send down human rights activists or priests...
...New York Times, February 28, 1987...
...Kami in Ha'aretz...
...Difficulty in documenting specific arms sales cannot hide the now manifest reality that the Israelis have been able to outfit the entire Guatemalan Army, from helmets to standard-issue automatic rifles...
...Deadly Trade 1. Miami Herald, December 1, 1986 2. Davar, (Tel Aviv), November 29, 1985 3. Washington Post, December 12, 1986...
...Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, "U.S.-Israeli-Central American Connection," The Link, Vol...
...U MG, JH, and MJ 1955 was the first Latin American nation to set up a diplomatic mission in Jerusalem...
...counterinsurgency manuals to their own reality, and launched a massive new campaign against the guerrillas...
...Israel Aircraft Industries, Arava (Tel Aviv: Israel Aircraft Industries, n.d...
...T HE IRAN-CONTRA SCANDAL SEEMS TO have legitimized discussion of Israel's role in Guatemala...
...17, no...
...A former employee of Nimrodi's said the dealer-who is reputed to be one of Israel's richest menmade the sale as a "favor" to the rebels, and took only "a small fee" for himself.' David Marcus Katz, the Mexico City-based agent of at least 17 Israeli weapons manufacturers, "helped broker" an arms deal for the contras in 1985.' Katz is a major contributer to Israel's religious Right.' Closely associated with Anastasio Somoza, Katz accompanied Ariel Sharon on his 1982 trip to Honduras...
...Former Army chief of staff, General Rodolfo Lobos Zamora, following a visit to Israel in 1985, confirmed that the Israeli government supplies the Guatemalan Army, adding "that is why sometimes [Israeli] military personnel come to observe the quality and performance of things we have . . . It's no sec"ret...
...Informador Guerrillero (Guatemala: Ej6rcito Guerrillero de los Pobres), May 31, 1985, p. 8 . 52...
...They have provided key advice, technology, war materiel and industrial capability...
...Guatemalan soldiers have been trained in Israel...
...another system used by military intelligence lies inside the National Palace...
...Israelis have also worked closely with Guatemalan military intelligence (G-2).3 There are also numerous other reports of Israeli trainers in Guatemala...
...Excelsior (Mexico City), May 8,1986 9. Latin American Regional Reports: Mexico and Central America,February 19, 1987, p. 7 10...
...Honduras does not use RPG-7 grenade launchers...
...Ambassador Dayan commented: "Maybe there are Israeli persons here, but they are not with the Israeli Army and not with the embassy...
...Guardian (London), December 29, 1981...
...Ostensibly for training, the rifles actually armed civil defense patrols, part of the military's counterinsurgency effort...
...Black, Report on the Americas, p. 44...
...Latin American Regional Reports: Mexico and Central America, August 17, 1984, p. 8; Invasion: A Guide to the U.S...
...Benedicto Lucas Garcia stated in a 1986 interview that "Israel helped us in regard to planes and transportation-which we desperately needed because we had problems in transfering ground forces from one place to another...
...4 " Located in Santa Cruz Verapaz, Alta Verapaz, about 125 miles north of Guatemala City, the munitions plant was was originally intended to make only ammunition...
...In a 1986 interview in the Tel Aviv daily, Ha'aretz, Gen...
...SRAEL WAS NOT THE ONLY COUNTRY Guatemala turned to when U.S...
...Even the radar at the airport was installed by Israelis...
...2 0 The opening ceremony was attended by the Israeli ambassador to Guatemala...
...Rios Montt told an ABC reporter that the military coup which put him in power had gone off smoothly "because many of our soldiers were trained by Israelis...
...The Guatemalan Right once spoke freely of the "Palestinianization" of Guatemala's Indians who comprise more than half of the country's population.' 2 It is no secret that many Guatemalan military technicians have been trained in Israel...
...Arnson, New Outlook, p.22...
...aid was reduced...
...While Guatemala uses the Arava for its agricultural development programs, its main purpose is military...
...Wall Street Journal, October 30, 1985...
...Israeli arms, advice and war-related technological assistance to the region are deadly to Central Americans and may prove detrimental to Israel's long-term national interests...
...Latin America Weekly Report (London), May 16, 1980, p. 1 0 . 11...
...Within that bloc, Guatemala's position proved decisive...
...San Antonio Light, December 28, 1983...
...But by the early 1970s, the guerrilla movement resurfaced and developed its strongest base among Indians, who were basically untouched by the 1960s insurgency...
...5 5 The secretive Israelis are top-notch military professionals whose involvement in Central America helps accomplish Washington's policy goals without provoking opposition in the United States...
...January 6, 1984, p. 3 . 50...
...Latchinian was arrested by the FBI for his role---obtaining the weapons-in an assassintion plot against then Honduran President Roberto Suazo C6rdoba...
...From 1977 to early 1986, the Israelis were supporting a government that was among the world's worst human rights violators, that met any opposition with death threats, where military and paramilitary death squads operated with impunity and where the democratic aspirations of a people were systematically repressed...
...Among the appointees was Guatemalan diplomat Jorge Garcia Granados, representing the reformist Arevalo government...
...Within three months, Guatemala began to receive large shipments of Israelimade weaponry...
...Guatemala 1. Washington Post, December 12, 1986...
...The second is actually the nerve center of the armed forces, which deals with the movements of units in the field and so on...
...Yet someone looking into Israel's role would notice its presence everywhere...
...and C6sar Augusto Cdceres Rojas, recently appointed chief of staff, were in a position to broker between the contras and Israel...
Vol. 21 • March 1987 • No. 2
