"This humanitarian exercise provides the United States the opportunity to deploy and train Military Reserve and National Guard troops."
The Frente Nacional de Lucha called the arrival of US troops in Guatemala a threat to peace. They quoted Sandino Asturias, Centro de Estudios de Guatemala (CEG) who disputed how 'humanitarian' the intentions are:"Para nadie es un secreto el interés geopolítico de los Estados Unidos en la región y en particular en Guatemala. Aquí lo grave es que en esencia se trata del uso del territorio guatemalteco para entrenar tropas militares extranjeras. Eso es una flagrante violación a la soberanía nacional. El hecho que lo disfracen de obras sociales y de infraestructura tiene aún otro objetivo perverso: el acostumbrar a la población a la presencia de las tropas norteamericanas y que de alguna forma ésta sea aceptable por el público en general."
Whatever the truth it's not hard to be cynical when this same programme of 'Nuevos Horizontes' is repeated all across the region each year since 1995: Dominican Republic, Peru, Nicaragua, Panama, El Salvador, etc. Given the timing- just in the run up to the elections, let's hope there's not a repeat of interference the US demonstrated in Nicaragua (according to the OAS) last year.
Background
Nuevos Horizontes/ New Horizons is an engineer humanitarian civic assistance exercise designed to give training to U.S. military units in civilian construction or medical care services. Participating U.S. troops build basic infrastructure (roads, bridges, schools, wells, etc.) and provide medical, dental and veterinary services. Information from a 'Civilian's guide to U.S. defence and security assistance to Latin America'.
From Guatemala to Colombia: The Regional Integration of Gold and Bullets is an article in ZNET by Sandra Cuffe that analyzes the role of militarization as a part of the control of territory, natural resources and people, and raises doubts about the so-called war on drug trafficking in mining districts. A comparison is drawn between Plan Colombia and the current situation in the gold mining region of San Marcos, Guatemala.
More on US interference in the Nicaraguan election from Quest for Peace.
Photo: SOAW
It's also worth noting the irony that these humanitarian military manoeuvres are taking place while a US court is showing great 'humanity' jailing, on counts of trespass, peaceful protestors against WHINSEC (previously known as the School of the Americas) blamed for military-led human rights abuses across Latin America. Many graduates of the school trained in the US were from the Guatemalan military and are amongst those cited by various reports and legal actions for their responsibility in gross human rights violations.
