Guatemala Peace and Development Network
Open Letter to President Obama regarding the political crisis in
Guatemala
Guatemala and Its Diaspora, June 9, 2015
Mr. Barack Obama
President of the United States
Washington D.C.
Distinguished President Obama,
We, members of the Guatemala Peace and Development Network
(GPDN/RPDG) and other colleagues, have addressed ourselves to you in the past
mainly to present concerns about human rights and issues affecting Guatemalan
immigrants in the United States, including the recent killing of a Guatemalan
worker. In the past, we have strongly advocated on behalf of TPS for
Guatemalans and protection for our youth and children who have reached your
country, often after overcoming very significant challenges. Sometimes,
although not too frequently, we have been heard in our appeals, but we feel
that your administration has not paid enough attention to demands presented to
you from Guatemalans in the United States.
This time our demand regards the situation in Guatemala,
where a profound political crisis has been evolving in the last eight weeks,
and we ask your full attention and response. We believe that the United States
Government, misled by its Embassy in Guatemala and the CIA, is once again
siding with the wrong ally: Head of State Otto Pérez. As you know, the Eisenhower
administration was responsible for the overthrow of President Jacobo Árbenz in
1954 that terminated our “Democratic Spring.” You also know the consequences of
that action: constant repression and human rights violations from 1954 to 1962;
an internal armed conflict from 1962 to 1996, where armed and security state
forces were responsible for more than 200,000 deaths and 45,000 forced disappearances,
mainly of unarmed civilians; and incomplete government compliance with the
Peace Accords signed in December 1996 by the powerful sectors and the
insurgents in Guatemala. In all these years –more than 60 years—successive U.S.
administrations have been supporting the very rich, the armed forces, and right
wing parties, despite President Clinton’s apology to the Guatemalan people in
1998 for wrong U.S. policies in the past.
Today, again, the U.S. Embassy –most likely with the support
from the State Department—is one of the few actors (with some members of the
private sector CACIF, some also under investigation for theft) that is impeding
the fall of Otto Pérez as Head of State against the will of hundreds of
thousands of citizens on the streets and thousands of organizations in
Guatemala and elsewhere. Mr. Pérez claims to have the personal support of a
U.S. Under-Secretary of State he does not name, and he continues getting
support from Mr. Todd Robinson, the Ambassador, who only four weeks ago was opposing
Vice President Roxana Baldetti for the very same crimes Mr. Pérez is being
accused of. We want you, Mr. Obama, to explain U.S. policy. We do not want to
see the United States again on the wrong side in Guatemala.
We believe that your decision should be made on moral
grounds –the Head of State in Guatemala, who has been responsible for abuse,
repression, fraud and corruption, in addition to crimes related to
drug-trafficking the DEA is very aware of, should immediately resign or be
dismissed. We are not asking for an act of intervention; what we precisely urge
from you is not to intervene, as your officials in Guatemala are doing, on
behalf of a very weak government. Let it fall as the people demand, and many of
the problems you have faced in Guatemala –organized crime, violence,
undocumented migration—will be properly confronted.
Many thousands of Guatemalan immigrants in the U.S. are
watching to see what your administration will do, and many will vote according
to whether U.S. policy is enlightened, or whether Washington will continue to
support an unpopular and dubious president in Guatemala.
President Obama, Guatemalans cannot waste any more time. In
Guatemala, we need to start rebuilding state structures and amending or
rewriting crucial laws, including the Constitution. For that, Otto Pérez and
his close officials must resign. We need honest people to urgently assume the
responsibility of responding to the claims of the Guatemala people. History is
still asking the United States to act properly and take the moral decision in Guatemala.
We believe you owe it to the Guatemalan people.
Sincerely,
RPDG’s Executive Committee
Open Letter to President Obama regarding the political crisis in
Guatemala
Guatemala and Its Diaspora, June 9, 2015
Mr. Barack Obama
President of the United States
Washington D.C.
Distinguished President Obama,
We, members of the Guatemala Peace and Development Network
(GPDN/RPDG) and other colleagues, have addressed ourselves to you in the past
mainly to present concerns about human rights and issues affecting Guatemalan
immigrants in the United States, including the recent killing of a Guatemalan
worker. In the past, we have strongly advocated on behalf of TPS for
Guatemalans and protection for our youth and children who have reached your
country, often after overcoming very significant challenges. Sometimes,
although not too frequently, we have been heard in our appeals, but we feel
that your administration has not paid enough attention to demands presented to
you from Guatemalans in the United States.
This time our demand regards the situation in Guatemala,
where a profound political crisis has been evolving in the last eight weeks,
and we ask your full attention and response. We believe that the United States
Government, misled by its Embassy in Guatemala and the CIA, is once again
siding with the wrong ally: Head of State Otto Pérez. As you know, the Eisenhower
administration was responsible for the overthrow of President Jacobo Árbenz in
1954 that terminated our “Democratic Spring.” You also know the consequences of
that action: constant repression and human rights violations from 1954 to 1962;
an internal armed conflict from 1962 to 1996, where armed and security state
forces were responsible for more than 200,000 deaths and 45,000 forced disappearances,
mainly of unarmed civilians; and incomplete government compliance with the
Peace Accords signed in December 1996 by the powerful sectors and the
insurgents in Guatemala. In all these years –more than 60 years—successive U.S.
administrations have been supporting the very rich, the armed forces, and right
wing parties, despite President Clinton’s apology to the Guatemalan people in
1998 for wrong U.S. policies in the past.
Today, again, the U.S. Embassy –most likely with the support
from the State Department—is one of the few actors (with some members of the
private sector CACIF, some also under investigation for theft) that is impeding
the fall of Otto Pérez as Head of State against the will of hundreds of
thousands of citizens on the streets and thousands of organizations in
Guatemala and elsewhere. Mr. Pérez claims to have the personal support of a
U.S. Under-Secretary of State he does not name, and he continues getting
support from Mr. Todd Robinson, the Ambassador, who only four weeks ago was opposing
Vice President Roxana Baldetti for the very same crimes Mr. Pérez is being
accused of. We want you, Mr. Obama, to explain U.S. policy. We do not want to
see the United States again on the wrong side in Guatemala.
We believe that your decision should be made on moral
grounds –the Head of State in Guatemala, who has been responsible for abuse,
repression, fraud and corruption, in addition to crimes related to
drug-trafficking the DEA is very aware of, should immediately resign or be
dismissed. We are not asking for an act of intervention; what we precisely urge
from you is not to intervene, as your officials in Guatemala are doing, on
behalf of a very weak government. Let it fall as the people demand, and many of
the problems you have faced in Guatemala –organized crime, violence,
undocumented migration—will be properly confronted.
Many thousands of Guatemalan immigrants in the U.S. are
watching to see what your administration will do, and many will vote according
to whether U.S. policy is enlightened, or whether Washington will continue to
support an unpopular and dubious president in Guatemala.
President Obama, Guatemalans cannot waste any more time. In
Guatemala, we need to start rebuilding state structures and amending or
rewriting crucial laws, including the Constitution. For that, Otto Pérez and
his close officials must resign. We need honest people to urgently assume the
responsibility of responding to the claims of the Guatemala people. History is
still asking the United States to act properly and take the moral decision in Guatemala.
We believe you owe it to the Guatemalan people.
Sincerely,
RPDG’s Executive Committee
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