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. " D u rin g
1981, border incursions had oc
curred. but they were haphazard
and not very effective Then, in late
1981, the sophistication o f the at-
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