ustxtxb_obs_1982_11_12_50_00016-00000_000.pdf

. \\\\-1 and Associates E 502 W. 15th Street Austin, Texas 78701 .65 477-3651 I It REALTOR Representing all types of properties in Austin and Central Texas Interesting & unusual property a specialty Parisian Charm. Omelette & Champagne Breakfast. Beautiful Crepes. Afternoon Cocktails. Gallant Waiters. Delicious Quiche. Evening Romance. Continental Steaks-. Mysterious Women. Famous Pastries. Cognac & Midnight Rendezvous. In short, it’s about everything a great European style restaurant is all about. The_Old mcon St 310 East 6th St. Austin, Texas myth of an idyllic Guatemala \(“the land munism and who will attack any voice, no matter how moderate, that proposes a change in the status quo. Also necessary for the continued functioning of Guatemala’s junta is a virtual blackout on’news of Guatemalan army operations in our own media. Waving a sheaf of refugee testimonies, transcribed from cassettes, a Guatemalan in exile in Mexico City said, “The sad part is, you don’t believe any of this is happening.” It is this personal confrontation with exiled Guatemalans, be they middle class or campesino, that is most powerful. Are we ready to let go of some of our assumptions about “poor” people? Are we willing to let others challenge our humanist, liberal, or progressive beliefs? Can we search out news from Guatemala and then perhaps even understand what Jose Marti said: “To see an injustice and not combat it, is to commit it”? And, finally, will we be as willing to venture on our vacations to the cities and lakes of a liberated Guatemala as we once did to a Guatemala tortured by 450 years of colonialism? John Elder is a former Peace Corps volunteer who teaches in the San Antonio public schools. n HOUSTOti N Texas… 7i _FM is our business! Across from Texas Medical Center and Rice University, only 5 min. from Astrodome and Astro World, convenient to everything-downtown, zoo. golf . . and luxurious comfort! 485 Beautiful Rooms Fantastic Pool Cabana Suites Glass Elevator Excellent Food Sauna Baths Nightly Entertainment Meeting Rooms Color TV Vibrating Beds Bi-level Suites Room Service Free Parking CALL COLLECT n D~L_ _J J 11 MOTOR INN 6500 S. Main Houston 77005 Nes 11 MOTOR INN 6700 S. Main Houston 77005 HOUSTON TEXAS Continued from Page 15 rent campaign? Central to this issue is the realization that the army operations two decades ago resulted, not in the elimination of popular movements, but in their strengthening. Some guerrilleros were killed it is true, but thousands of innocent civilians were murdered as counterinsurgency units of Col. Arana Osorio, the “Jackal of the East,” ravished Guatemala. The armed groups now fighting the junta are more disciplined, more numerous, and more unified than were previous insurgents. The terroristic approach that the Guatemalan army uses to try to subdue the population and sever it from the guerrilla movement is not new. The novelty in the slaughters by the army is that their irrationality is explained away by Gen. Rios Montt who claims that the killings, the wholesale immolation of indigenous villages, are carried out in the name of God. Rios Montt becomes, then, only the instrument of the Almighty who, it is supposed, is deaf to the cries of Indian women and children burning alive inside a church ringed by soldiers armed with machine guns. During the current year, and especially since March, the army’s counterinsurgency campaign has been characterized by increasingly indiscriminate attacks on small rural aldeas and ranchos. In the past the army would retaliate by killing civilians in an area of known or suspected guerrilla activity. Now, according to Samuel Ruiz, bishop of San army comes to burn, to terrorize, and to kill only to fulfill its part of a program of genocide which may end up exterminating up to a third of Guatemala’s indigenous population. Again, we need to ask ourselves, is what is acceptable to Guatemala’s ruling junta acceptable to us? N ALL OF THIS, the role of the IUnited States is substantial. Notwithstanding U.S. or multinational corporate penetration in Guatemala, notwithstanding even the military training aid to Guatemala that our Congress approved this summer, the influence the United States plays in the battle now raging in Guatemala is clearly understood by both the popular forces and by the military leaders of that country. The guerrillas speak of inevitable victory, the human cost of which depends largely on the extent to which the U.S. becomes involved. The junta may not actively court large sums of military aid from the Reagan administration but it desperately needs the moral backing of President Reagan and the support of selected congressmen who are willing to defend the L…16 NOVEMBER 12, 1982