Guatemala-U.S. Relations

A revelation has recently come out that the U.S. gave Guatemalan prisoners and mental patients were intentionally given syphilis during the mid 1940s. It is just one shameful event in the history of U.S.-Guatemalan relations.

In response to a land reform act passed in 1952, the CIA conspired to overthrow Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz. The coup began a long relationship between the U.S. government and the Guatemalan military. The Guatemalan army ran a four decade-long war against Mayan guerillas. However, the army killed Mayan civilians with no ties to the guerillas. Entire villages were razed. The worst offenses occurred during the early 1980s. U.S. President Ronald Reagan praised General Efrain Rios Montt, the head of state and perpetrator of a dramatic rise in the violence, as a true democrat.

The evidence is in. Yet, to present the evidence is to unduly criticize the United States in the eyes of mainstream political discourse. To question America's intentions as anything but noble is to be considered anti-American. The stakes, as exhibited in Guatemala, is the fate of millions of people.