BY DAN
KENNEDY
Serving the reality-based community since 2002.
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Monday, November 10, 2003
Kill one for the Gipper.
Before the beatification
of Ronald Reagan is complete, we might want to step back and consider
his administration's involvement (somehow, the phrase his
involvement inevitably rings false) in one of the seamier
episodes of the 1980s: US support for Guatemala's right-wing death
squads.
According to this
Tim Weiner piece in this
morning's New York Times, the worst possible outcome has been
avoided -- that is, former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt,
a butcher (and born-again Christian!) trained at the notorious School
of the Americas, did not make the runoff.
James S. Henry has written
an
excellent overview of how
the Reagan White House supported right-wing terrorism in Guatemala,
which claimed nearly all of the 200,000 lives that were lost during
that violent time. After crediting Jimmy Carter with substantially
reducing assistance to the butchers of Guatemala, Henry
writes:
But when Ronald Reagan
took office in January 1981, the old public policy of mutual
understanding and back-scratching returned. Indeed, Deputy White
House Chief of Staff Michael Deaver's LA/DC- based PR firm, Deaver
and Hannaford, was hired by the junta's cronies, a substantial
amount of Guatemalan money reportedly found its way to the Reagan
war chest, and sanctions against US arms purchases
disappeared.
Thanks to Al Giordano's
Big,
Left, Outside weblog for
pointing me to Henry.
Meanwhile, NPR yesterday ran one of
the most bizarre stories you're ever likely to hear. Apparently a
major issue in the Guatemalan election campaign is the demand for
back pay by former members of the right-wing death
squads.
You can listen to the report in
Real Audio by clicking here.
Hypocritic oath. Let's get
this straight. George W. Bush, just as he did in the 2000 campaign,
has opted out of the public campaign-finance system.
Howard Dean knows he can't keep up
with Bush unless he follows suit. So, according to John Kerry, Dean
has gone over to the dark side.
Kerry on Dean: "I'm disappointed
that Governor Dean has taken a very different road than Democrats
have stood for as a matter of principle."
But Kerry knows he can't keep up
with Dean unless he opts out of the public system. So that's
exactly what he intends to do later this week. Kerry, though, wants
us to know that his reformist credentials are intact.
Kerry on Kerry: "We're going to
make our decision over the course of the next day or so. Now, whether
I will or not, I'll make that decision. But I'm prepared to.... I've
always said if any Democrat decides not to live by it, then I think,
within the universe of Democrats, we have to make our
decisions."
Whether you like what they're doing
or not, the truth is that Dean and Kerry are doing precisely the same
thing for precisely the same reason.
Here is Andrew
Miga's Boston Herald account
of Kerry's appearance on CBS's Face the Nation
yesterday.
posted at 9:02 AM |
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MEDIA LOG ARCHIVES
Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
