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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (May 30, 1984)
Page 2 Portland Observer. May 30. 1964 Ex-Guatemalan leader stirs controversy by Robert Lothian Guatemala's ex president, General Efrain Rios M onti, appeared at the Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship International Northwest Regional Convention in Portland Saturday night. May 26th. M o n lt, a born-again Christian and member of the fundamentalist protestan! Church o f the W ord based in Eureka, C a lifo rn ia , told the sympathetic audience gathered at the Jantzen Beach Red Lion Inn that it was "G o d 's logic" that he should come to power in a March, 1982 coup. Guatemala had been in the hands o f an im m oral leader General Romeo Lucas Garcia, he said. "Subversion was occupying most of my country," but the sub version was defeated during his 14- month term in office, according to M o n tt. "T h e y weren't killed, the subversives," he said, "they were defeated by the spirit of the Lord." As Monti was being introduced, a woman stepped to the microphone. "R ios M ontt is responsible for the deaths o f IS .000 Guatem alan peasants," she said before being whisked away. M o n tt stopped speaking several times as protesters from Alert Latin America and North west Action for Disarmament held up banners. " In the name of Christ, stop the m urders!", yelled one man as he was dragged to the door. Outside, the chants and songs of protesters could be heard as they picketed at the entrance to the parking lot. " T h is is just part o f business," said M ontt to the ruffled audience as the protesters were led out. According to news reports and human rights organizations, up to I $.000 Guatemalans, mostly unarmed Indian civilians, were killed by Guatemalan security forces under Rios Montt and 100,000 were forced to flee to Mexico. Material handed out by the P ortland Central America Solidarity Committee said that Rios Montt personally directed a massacre of peasants who staged a land takeover in 1973. According to the Committee, M onti's mission in the U S .. where he is on a speaking tour, "is to gather support for the brutal Guatemalan military regime, using his false Christianity to appeal to the American people." When he assumed power, Rios Montt was hailed by Reagan and his foreign policy advisors as a cham pion o f human rights who would end the k illin g. His predecessor, Lucas, was responsible for the deaths of 3,000 Guatemalans during his 2 ‘/3 year rule, according to A m nesty International. Lucas' methods brought in ternatio n al condem nation, and U .S . m ilita ry aid to Guatemala was suspended But human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, Americas W atch, and The American Friends' Service Commit tee, say the killing continued under M o n tt, only in a more systematic way. According to A F S C , M o n tt brought the war against guerillas more in line with U .S . counterin surgency strategy. Villagers were relocated to arm y-controlled villages, free Fire zones were created and peasants were forcibly conscrip ted into civilian patrols used to establish loyalty and to do the a r my's d irty work in remote areas. M o n lt also suspended the con stitution and established secret tribunals to try and then execute suspected guerillas. According to Amnesty In te r national, " M ilita r y and newly- form ed " c iv il defense" units destroyed entire villages, tortured and mutilated people and carried out mass executions in at least 112 separate incidents between March and July, 1982," (he first live mon ths of Rios Monti's presidency. Saturday night, the smiling, bushy- eyebrowed Montt was gracious as he was initiated into the "mystic order of the rose." A red rose, he said, "is like a drop of blood, the precious blood of Jesus." M ontt said his authority to rule Guatemala came from God. He was in church praying when a group of tries are friends of mine." he said. Human rights organizations say that Guatemala uses money chan nelled through fundamentalist churches to buy arms from Israel and other countries. Fundam entalist preachers help with the Guatemalan Army's counterinsurgency strategy, say these organizations, when they go to Guatemala and preach to the peasants that by G o d ’s command they should obey the government. GENERAL RIOS MONTT (Photo: Kris A ltucharl military officers came to ask him to lead. "B y the third d a y ," after the coup, he said, "G o d made me the president." Rios Montt became a Full Gospel Businessman in 1979, according to Bob S haffer, F G B M F I Portland field representative, when Shaffer and 26 Portland businessmen flew to Guatemala City to start a chapter there. The group has seven chapters in Guatem ala, nine in Costa Rica and one is being organized in Nicaragua, he said. "W e 're just a group of laymen," he said "W e don't talk about those th in g s ," he said, referring to the political situation in Central America. " O u r attitude is, 'H e y , le t’ s sit down and talk about this thing ' We prayed with (Rios Montt) and have been able to share with him in his troubled times." Shaffer said he has been to Guatemala 26 limes since 1979. " A couple of presidents in those coun On Sunday morning, Rios Montt delivered two sermons to the fun damentalist Neighborhood Church in Southeast Portland. " I have been to Guatemala many times ...I know the country and its problems," said Neighborhood Church Rev. Gary P arker. " T h is man brought a dimension of morality to that coun try. I love him,” said Parker. A t M o n tt prepared to speak, a woman got up and charged him with murder and then read a selection from the Bible as she was dragged out. "Blessed is the name o f the L o r d ," said M o n tt. " H o w m ar velous it is to be a soldier o f Christ.” Note: A protestor outside the Red Lion spoke with several people at tending the conference. He asked what they thought about Amnesty International's projection that there are 1,000,000 displaced G u ate malans, out o f a population of 7,000,000. “ The guy basically said, ' I f Rios M o n tt is spirit fille d , he must be doing the right thing.' It's pretty hard to fool someone filled with the spirit. And, if he has to kill some people, that doesn't mean he is going against the Lord's w ill. '* A nother explained that the con ference membership didn't care one way or the other about the political implications and felt that if anyone were filled with the sp irit, they would be happy ...and that's all that matters. Speakers share views of Central America by Catherine Siegner The Observer talked to several visiting spokespersons during Cen tra l Am erica in fo rm atio n week. M ay 7-1 U h The purpose o f their visits was Io share personal knowledge about the area with Port land residents in order to sort out conflicting inform ation on what's happening there. The informational tour was spon sored by the In lerrelig io u s F o u n dation f o r C om m unity Organ ization in New York and the P o r t la n d - b a s e d E c u m e n ic a l Ministries o f Oregon. This week, we hear fro m an Am erican lay worker with the Presbyterian Church who has visited Nicaragua as a Witness fo r Peace volunteer, and a Moravian Church volunteer and social services consultant who has lived among the M is k ilo Indians on Nicaragua's East coast. Betsy Yeager Betsy Yeager is a Presbyterian lay w orker, musician and orchestral conductor. She is also a mother, grandmother and peace activist. Yeager and her husband abruptly changed their lifestyle after a son was killed in an accident. They quit jobs in radio and television, sold their home in the San Francisco area and studied Spanish and " L a tin American theological thinking" in Mexico. A fter a long period of living in C olom bia, the Yeagers landed in New Y ork, where Betsy Yeager works on the staff of Stony Point Conference Center, a Presbyterian facility up the Hudson River from New York City. She went on the first long-term project o f Witness for Peace, an ecumenical organization which en courages interested volunteers to visit Central America and turn their individual talents toward peaceful assistance on local problems. Witness for Peace sponsored the hand-to-hand demonstration along the Nicaragua Honduras border last fall. Yeager was in a rural border town in Nicaragua from last November until January of this year. The stay sharpened her political senses and convinced her there's more poten tial in grassroots education on Cen tral American issues than in lo b bying politicians in W ashington, DC. " A ll night long, you hear mortar fire, and in the morning, you see the results," she recalled. "Kids under IS having amputations without so much as an aspirin because our government finds out where medicinal supplies are and bombs them,” "Illegitimate" children entitled to benefits W A S H IN G TO N . D C — "Illegi timate" (out of wedlock) children of deceased Civil Service employees or Members from throughout the country are now eligible for survivor annuity benefits on the same basis as other surviving children, as the result of a federal court decision in the District of Columbia. Hundreds of children are affected by the Court's 1978 ruling, and many of them are eligible for benefits, the amount of which will vary accor ding to the provisions of the retirement law. A provision of the Civil Service survivor annuity law, which restric ted survivor benefits to those "illegitimate" children who were "living with” their Civil Service parent at the time of the parent's I death, has been declared uncon stitutional. Judge Charles R. Richey of the District of Columbia federal district court ruled that all "illegitimate” children whose Civil Service parent died on or after February 24, 1972, are entitled to back ("retroactive") benefits which the Office of Personnel Management (formerly the Civil Service Commission) improperly denied them. They may also be en titled to future monthly benefits as well. Persons who think they may be eligible for benefits or who know about children who may be eligible for benefits should write or call P.O. Box 16, Washington, D C. 20004, 202-632-6833. Ytager was able to contrast life in post-revolutionary Nicaragua with life in C hile after spending three months in Santiago earlier on. She called Chile a "repressive society,” and described being roughed up by two soldiers while preaching. "W h e n I got home, I just couldn’t walk back into my cookie- cutter house. I wanted to see what a real revolution was lik e ." So she went to Nicaraaua. "T h e difference in the people is so apparent. They have socialized medicine. Every child, even in (he boonies, has a fresh vaccination mark The illiteracy rate was 704k at the end of the revolution; it's gone down to 5-8*». Our illiteracy rate here is about I7W "They accepted me with open joy and sharing," Yeager said. " I went to the funeral o f a 14-year old soldier. His mother was crying near the oper, casket. She looked at me and said, 'W e forgive you and the American people. We just hope President Reagan's heart will sof ten.'" Yeager said many churches have written "strong letters to Reagan. All have been disregarded ... (The U .S .) is not going to win this war. The spirit of the people refuses to die.” Yeager is returning to Nicaragua this fa ll leading a (our of "businessmen and enlightened minorities. " I wish everybody would go down there and see it for them selves." M argaret W ilde The Eastern border areas of Nicaragua have been a focus of "contra” activity since 1981. Con- ter-revolutionaries, mostly former m ilitary men who served under deposed dictator Anastasio Somoza or mercenaries, are trying to gain a permanent foothold in the East in order to overthrow the Sandinista government. The reasons why the Eastern areas of Nicaragua are such fertile ground for the contras lie in historic, geographic and cultural differences between the East and West. Margaret Wilde, a consultant for Moravian Church-sponsored social service programs, has lived and worked extensively among the M is k ito Indians and so-called “ Creoles" o f Nicaragua's Eastern region. She is a U .S . citizen and lives in Pennsylvania. “ There is a low range of moun tains that divides Nicaragua in half." W ilde explained. " T h e Spanish conquest never really reached the Eastern h alf o f the country. The Miskito fought the Spaniards o ff." Centuries later, she said, when the Sandinistas were victorious in over throwing Somoza, the legacy of ignoring the East still prevailed. The Indians, and the Creoles (English- speaking Black descendents of West Indians who migrated to Nicaragua in the 19th century) were content with being left to themselves, Wilde said. But tensions developed when the Sandinistas attempted to expand needed social services to them. The Sandinistas, although Nicaraguan, were seen as "fo re ig n e rs ” by the Eastern residents. " T h e Western Nicaraguans are called 'Spaniards* by the M iskito," she said. "The Indians remembered fighting the Spaniards. The Wester ners are Spanish-speaking Catholics. The Indians have their own languages and religions. " T h e Sandinistas had policy priorities to provide social services to all the people of Nicaragua. They had health programs and literacy campaigns. And they came in with missionaries' attitudes—somewhat paternalistic and arrogant. There was a resentment (on the part of the Indians.)*’ Wilde said this reaction made the Sandinistas nervous because they expected the U .S . government, through the C IA , to use the Miskito against the revolution. Therefore, while social programs continued in the East, plans to secure the zone militarily went forward. The Sandinista's fear seemed to be justified by later events. Wilde said the C IA linked up with (he con tras in 1981 and established a radio station called "Radio 13th of Sep tem ber" just across the border in Honduras. "They started broadcasting in In dian languages. They said the con tras were going to invade N ic a ra g u a ," she said. 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