Part
2 - Proxy for US
From the
1980s to today, Israel’s extensive military role in Guatemala
remains an open secret that is well-documented but receives scant
criticism.
Discussing
the military coup which installed him as president in 1982, Ríos
Montt told an ABC News reporter that his regime takeover went so
smoothly “because many of our soldiers were trained by
Israelis.” In Israel, the press reported that 300 Israeli
advisers were on the ground training Ríos Montt’s soldiers.
One Israeli
adviser in Guatemala at the time, Lieutenant Colonel Amatzia Shuali,
said: “I don’t care what the Gentiles do with the arms. The
main thing is that the Jews profit,” as recounted in Dangerous
Liaison by Andrew and Leslie Cockburn.
Some years
earlier, when Congressional restrictions under the Carter
administration limited US military aid to Guatemala due to human
rights violations, Israeli economic and military technology leaders
saw a golden opportunity to enter the market.
Yaakov
Meridor, then an Israeli minister of economy, indicated in the early
1980s that Israel wished to be a proxy for the US in countries where
it had decided not to openly sell weapons. Meridor said: “We
will say to the Americans: Don’t compete with us in Taiwan; don’t
compete with us in South Africa; don’t compete with us in the
Caribbean or in other places where you cannot sell arms directly. Let
us do it … Israel will be your intermediary.”
The CBS
Evening News with Dan Rather program attempted to explain the source
of Israel’s global expertise by noting in 1983 that the advanced
weaponry and methods Israel peddled in Guatemala had been
successfully “tried and tested on the West Bank and Gaza,
designed simply to beat the guerrilla.”
Israel’s
selling points for its weapons relied not only on their use in the
occupied West Bank and Gaza but also in the wider region. Journalist
George Black reported that Guatemalan military circles admired the
Israeli army’s performance during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon.
Their overseas admiration was so unabashed that rightists in
Guatemala “spoke openly of the ‘Palestinianization’ of the
nation’s rebellious Mayan Indians,” according to Black.
Military
cooperation between Israel and Guatemala has been traced back to the
1960s. By the time of Ríos Montt’s rule, Israel had become
Guatemala’s main provider of weapons, military training,
surveillance technology and other vital assistance in the state’s
war on urban leftists and rural indigenous Mayans.
In turn,
many Guatemalans suffered the results of this special relationship
and have connected Israel to their national tragedy.
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