How the British Army Cooperated with the Murderous Guatemalan Regime
How the British Army Cooperated with the Murderous Guatemalan Regime
By Phil Miller
May 31, 2016
Guatemalans are still struggling to come to terms with what happened in their civil war between US-backed rulers, left-wing rebels, and indigenous communities. One former president, Rios Montt, is awaiting trial for genocide, charged with murdering 1,771 indigenous Maya people from 1982 to 1983. Now Britain's covert collusion with Montt's regime at the height of the 36-year civil war is being called into question by files VICE has discovered at the UK National Archives.
In 1983, Britain had a garrison of 1,500 soldiers stationed along the Guatemalan border in neighboring Belize, which was a former UK colony. Politicians in Westminster and the public thought that the British army was out there to stop Guatemala invading Belize, a move it had long threatened.
In secret, however, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher allowed her troops to help the ruthless Guatemalan military dictatorship eliminate its internal opponents.
Left-wing Guatemalan rebels were trying to topple Montt's regime and allegedly staged some of their attacks from Belize. The files show that British commanders feared these cross-border raids would give the Guatemalan leadership an excuse to invade Belize. To prevent this, top British army officers decided to share intelligence on rebels with Guatemalan commanders, even though they were linked to human rights abuses. Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots made reconnaissance flights over the Belizean jungle looking for guerrilla camps, and British troops carried out secret foot patrols. UK soldiers even used a Guatemalan rebel informant for one patrol, before sending him back to Guatemala, where he was arrested and later murdered by government gunmen.
More:
http://www.vice.com/read/murder-in-the-jungle-guatemala-british-army-civil-war
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