Not Going to Talk about Guatemalan Domestic Politics

I’m sorry Congressman Weller, but if you were paying attention the post as a member of the International Affair’s subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere actually means you should be talking about internal Guatemalan politics and now that you are going to be family with a butcher it becomes increasingly interesting how you might talk about it.

Would you mind denouncing Rios Montt’s history of violence against indigenous tribes? How about denouncing genocide of Mayans under Rios Montt’s rule and his harassment of them last year as he ran for office? You know, when your future wife was working to get him elected and Rios Montt’s activities have led to him being held on charges for inciting riots–how about denouncing that?

Where is all the moral clarity I kept hearing about in regards to Iraq? Doing Mayans not deserve the same moral clarity? Just curious?

Over the last decade, Mr. R?os Montt has re-emerged as the head of a political party, the Guatemalan Republican Front. Adriana Beltr?n, a researcher of Guatemala for the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights group, said that the party “supports the interests of the right-wing military.”

When Mr. R?os Montt ran for president of Guatemala last year, his daughter called him “totally democratic.” She said that people in one town who pelted him with rocks and drowned out his speech with chants of “Murderer!” had violated his human rights.

“Zury has supported her father very strongly, and as far as I know she has never distanced herself from the atrocities, the scorched-earth policy or the massacres that were part of his presidency,” Ms. Beltr?n said.