This is a very detailed US State Department report on extrajudicial killings in Guatemala from 1977 to 1986. The report explores the sociological background of political violence in the country and describes the campaign of state terror waged against opponents of military rule in Guatemala during the bloodiest years of the nation’s 36-year civil war. The report notes that while the application of drastic measures succeeded in virtually wiping out the human infrastructure of the left wing insurgency in Guatemala by 1984, such tactics undermined the legitimacy of state institutions and exacerbated the economic and racial tensions at the heart of political conflict in Guatemala.
This document is rather disturbing in that it largely ignores the role of the United States in instigating and supporting political violence in Guatemala throughout most of the Cold War. There is no mention of the role of the CIA in the 1954 coup d’etat that began the modern era of right wing military rule in Guatemala. Nor does the report address the extensive training and support provided to Guatemalan security forces by the US Army and civilian government agencies over the last several decades, during which time the Guatemalan Army accumulated one of the worst human rights records in the Western Hemisphere. The report concedes that the US State Department has done a poor job of grasping the magnitude of human rights violations in Guatemala and asserts that it will be more conscientious in this endeavor in the future. However, the history of US diplomacy in Guatemalan since 1987 (about the time this report was written) provides little evidence that this commitment has been honored.
The Salvador Option 