On March 16 the New York Times published this article by Elisabeth Malkin about the upcoming trial of former Guatemalan dictator Rios Montt on charges of genocide.
Today an edited version of the same story appears in my New York Times International Weekly. One thing that has been edited out of the original is Ms. Malkin's reference to US knowledge of the genocide;
"...American diplomats and intelligence agencies knew that the Guatemalan army was carrying out the massacres, even though the Reagan administration argued in public that human rights conditions were improving."
Apparently even that oblique concession to reality was too much for the editors at the Times. America's complicity in the murder of tens of thousands of peasants and natives throughout Central and South America goes far beyond knowing about it. These murders in Guatemala and beyond were actively supported as a matter of US policy.
See for example the excellent article by Robert Parry, Reagan's Hand in Guatemala's Genocide.
Thirty years later Rios Montt finally gets a trial.
Ronald Reagan gets statues.
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