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Historical Perspectives
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Congressional Briefing on the 50th Anniversary of the U.S. Intervention in Guatemala Presentation by Panelist Iduvina Hernandez, June 24, 2004

PBSuccess: The Operation that Sowed the Seeds
of Shame, Terror, and Genocide in Guatemala

Fifty years ago, the CIA carried out Operation PBSuccess in Guatemala. This operation overthrew the legal and democratically-elected government presided over by Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán. Having illegally caused the downfall of this government, the CIA also quashed changes intended to reform Guatemala into a democratic society respectful of the rights and liberties of its people.

Having created a mercenary army aligned with foreign interests, in particular those of the United Fruit Company, affected by the expropriation of lands in favor of poor peasants, the CIA created the beginnings of a monster that would culminate in almost 500 massacres, more than 240,000 victims, among them dead and disappeared by the military forces during thirty-six years of armed conflict.

In order for the regime, which was created from the mercenary invasion army of 1954, to maintain the status quo, lists of government enemies were compiled. The targets included union leaders, peasants, students, professionals, religious persons, journalists and democratic politicians, who were only interested in exercising the rights that democracy offers to any citizen in the world. The armed forces responded to the call for democracy and justice with extra-judicial executions, forced disappearances, torture, exile, and political, religious, and ethnic genocide.

The tool used to carry out this regime of terror, that lasted more than thirty years, was the army, which applied the National Security Doctrine, according to which all dissidents were internal enemies of the state and had to be eliminated. Proof of this is contained in recently declassified documents in the United States. These texts confirm that Operation PBSuccess included a list of enemies who, according to these documents, were to be dealt with by an “Executive Solution,” that included physical elimination. This policy was applied throughout the armed conflict and was carried to extremes that included the massive execution of entire populations in the indigenous areas of Guatemala.

The U.S. government provided interrogation manuals, special intelligence courses, techniques for obtaining information, design of counterinsurgency campaigns in the School of the Americas, as well as financial support, among other things, to Guatemala, from the time of the invasion until military aid was suspended by the U.S. Congress. This suspension was put into place only after it had been amply documented that the Guatemalan military had committed massive human rights violations. It was partially resumed in 1982 and 1983. The Efraín Ríos Montt administration alone, which came to power through a coup-d’etat, received $250,000 in military aid in 1982 and $50 million in 1983.

Despite the ending of the armed conflict, the Guatemalan army has not modified its doctrine with which it trained officers, soldiers and specialists who committed atrocities during the war. Because of this and because there hasn’t been a profound purging of the armed forces, human rights violations continue in the form of persecution and harassment of human rights defenders, operators of justice (judges, lawyers, witnesses) , and journalists.

Half a century later, military officials continue to be educated in the same manner in which they were educated in 1954, when they aided the invasion and attacked the civilian population. They continue studying the same techniques that they learned in the School of the Americas and that served to torture and persecute Guatemalan citizens. These officers continue to believe that impunity – rather than an embarrassment for any professional military officer – is a form of compensation within the military structure. Guatemalan army officers continue studying the model that says they won’t have to answer to anyone or recognize their responsibility for past crimes.

Since the army has not investigated or purged from its ranks those who have committed human rights violations, impunity has been permitted to reign and military officials are involved in crime and organized crime networks. These same organized crime structures also attack human rights defenders, precisely in order to prevent investigations of past crimes and the prosecution of those responsible for massacres, executions, kidnappings, and torture from moving forward. Because of that, the Guatemalan army is a strong opponent of the proposed Commission to Investigate Illegal Bodies and Clandestine Security Structures (CICIACS), whose integration and functioning is a commitment that was assumed between the Guatemalan government and the United Nations.

Social and human rights organizations consider that in order for the Guatemalan army to completely overcome the antidemocratic doctrine of National Security and counterinsurgency education, which converted that institution into a violator of human rights, it’s necessary to carry out a thorough purging of the armed forces. We believe that what’s missing, moreover, is a thorough investigation of crimes committed by current and former officials in order to bring them to trial and assure that the army is structured professionally and committed to the values of democracy and respect for human rights. We believe it is essential to rely on an armed institution that is held accountable for its actions and conducts its activities with transparency before civil society.

Now that half a century since the invasion of Guatemala has passed, instead of celebrating the 50 year golden anniversary, we must rather remember the shameful acts of the past against a society that only wanted to build democracy and live in peace.

Supporting Guatemalan demilitarization, a full accounting of responsibility, the investigation and punishment of those responsible for past crimes, and respect for the rule of law is the best way the U.S. can erase the dishonor it earned by destroying a legal and democratically-elected government and creating an army that massacred its own Maya peoples. Speaking on behalf of human rights defenders, I want to say that we support the closing of the School of the Americas, which trained the majority of officers responsible for human rights violations and who became involved in organized crime. We also don’t believe the US should lift the ban on military aid to Guatemala, because the Guatemalan military has still not shown itself capable of recognizing its crimes and accepting its responsibilities. As long as those in the military continue receiving the badge of immunity for their actions, the virus Operation PBSuccess created will live on like any other virus that transforms itself over time but never completely disappears from the system.

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