_Guatemala’s years of terror . Guillermo:Toriello, author of Behind. the Banana Curtain, spent several weeks In Cuba, where he attended the May Day Celebration this year. In an Interview with ido Formoso from Prensa Latina, Torlello speaks of the violence and pov- erty which has prevailed in Guatemala since the overthrow of the democratic S0vernment. of Jacobo Arbenz in 1954. Since'then, massacres of peasants, re- Volutionaries and trade union ieaders ve been conducted by the Guatemalan Army and the U.S. Green Berets who act 88 advisers in the paramilitary groups nd the antiguerilla campaign. Toriello, who was the foreign relations minister at the time of the overthrow, Speaks out against the role of U.S. im- Perialism in Latin America today. Q: How do you view the situation in your Country? Are there prospects for change? A: There have been no substantial ia ges in Guatemala since the military, backed by U.S. imperialism, usurped power _ i 1954. Every government since then has Teceived complete support from the United tates, especially the Pentagon, which exer- Cises absolute control over Guatemala’s Military. And every government has come Into power either by force or, like the present 80vernment of Kjell Eugenio Laugerud, ugh the fraudulent electoral process. upcoming presidential elections will. Undoubtedly be no exception. It is reported that there will be three candidates: General Meo Lucas, present Minister of Defense and representative of the right wing in Power; General Rodolfo Rubio, a “‘center- Moderate’; and General Ricardo Peralta. €ndez, “a reformist.” But the outcome of t Se pseudo-democratic elections will be he Same as the previous ones, that is, the election next year ‘of a candidate that will represent the military elite in power, the €ntagon and the transnational companies. ; Inder these circumstances there is no hope or fundamental changes in my country. : my opinion, the only forces represent- the the Guatemalan people at this time are: € Guerrilla Army of the Poor, which oper- "Stes in the Edgar Ibarra Front in the central jpountain zone of the country; the Guatema- &n Labor Party (Communist), which oper- ates clandestinely; the trade unions and the Peasantry The labor movement has withstood the dae ination of many of its leaders and to- f Y; in alliance with the peasants, is a strong the country. . Our courageous youth are struggling wandestinely against the regime of terror h has prevailed in Guatemala for the Se 20 years. The bourgeois democratic re- : ution of the 1950s made it possible for the jpitit of national rebellion, which charac- Tizes the Guatemalan people, to be chan- ved toward liberation. Unity among the left ing forces is what we need today. = gles isthe economic situation of A: Guatemala has a foreign debt of some million. Recently, it has received loans, edits and donations for the so-calléd recon. Struction of the country after its devastating x luake. However, those loans have in- Teased the foreign debt and enriched the 80verning military elite. Meanwhile, the People live in hunger. and misery. u Guatemala today there are 77 powerful “e Companies. A consortium called Exmi- » Made up of the International Nickel Cor- poration (INCO) and Hanna Mining, exploits one of the biggest nickel mines in the world: (These companies had previously exploited nickel in Cuba, but when they were forced to leave the island, they set their eyes on Guatemala.) ‘ Exmibal obtained concessions that are damaging to the country from the sell-out government of Mendez Montenegro and Car- los Arana Osorio. According to the terms of the concession, for 40 years the consortium will exploit a’surface deposit in an area of 389. square kilometers (one square kilometer equals 0.386 square mile) near Lake Izabal. The State will receive some $12 million a year, while the U.S. consortium will take all the nickel valued at billions of dollars. - withdrawing from Guatemalan territory. All armies of El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua, within the. so-called Central American Defense Council: (CONDECA), ; ‘which was created, equipped and fi by the Pentagon. ~~ CONDECA was set:up with the idea of crushing any liberation movement or acts of rebellion that would arise in the Central American region. Three years ago, for example, U.S: planes based in the Panama Canal Zone, plus Guatemalan and Nicara- guan planes, attacked an army fortress in El Salvador which had rebelled against the government of Colonel Arturo Molina, forc- ing his surrender. Q: Is there a revolutionary movement ~ among the intellectuals of Guatemala? A: There are some revolutionary intellec- tuals who have always worked for the eman- __cipation of our people, but most of the prog-_ ressive writers and artists are in exile, such as Julio Gomez Padilla, José Luis Valcarcel, Otto Raul Gonzalez and others. Some have been murdered, like poet Otto Rene Castillo, who was accused of working with the gueril- . las. He was burned alive after being doused with gasoline. However, in the University of San Carlos. there are groups of courageous young intel- . lectuals oo < magazine which has analyses and commen- - taries:with reyojutinary content. ‘Qi: What. are your impressions of Cuba " and its Revolution?’ A: For me it was.a fundamental duty to come to Cuba. I have followed the Revolution step by step as if I had been here. I haye suffered its problems and celebrated its triumphs. Seeing everything that is happen- ing-in Cuba has been an extraordinary ex- perience. I visited schools, the José Marti pioneer camp and Alamar where, workers are building their own housing using the mic- robrigade system. We from the capitalist world are amazed to see the children of peasants and workers enjoying the benefits of free education, without discrimination of any type, with equal opportunities for all. The Cubans have been able to defeat mis- ery,. ignorance, illiteracy, underdevelop- ’ ment, and take the road on to progress. In Cuba there is respect for human rights, everybody’s rights, because everybody is working to build socialism. And there is something of world importance: the Cuban Revolution has been loyal to the principles of socialist internationalism, not only in An- gola, but in other parts of the world as well. Since the cneahawecet the democratic government In 1954, 27,000 people have been killed and 15,000 reported missing. The husband of the woman below Sara Q: How do you view the U.S. campaign on human rights? : A: Frankly, Carter’s policy is hypocriti- . cal. He wants to give the impression that the. United States government has changed its aggressive policy in Latin America and in the world in general, that it is genuinely. democratic and worried about the situation of the people living under regimes that vio- late human rights. The United States government is morally unfit to speak of human rights because it mistreats and discriminates against Blacks, Chicanos, Native American Indians, Puerto Ricans and other ethnic minorities. Moreover who, if not the United States im- perialists, has created and supported the re- gimes in Chile, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Uruguay, Paraguay and other coun- tries? -. This is a continent filled with dictator- ships, tyrannies and governments main- tained in power by U.S. imperialism. That is why we say that Cuba is the only free terri- tory in America. It is free of the noxious in- fluence and pressures of imperialism. Q: How do you interpret the apparent dif- ferences existing between the United States and those regimes? : A: After Carter attached U.S. military aid to the issue of human rights, Laugerud, in an apparent display of national dignity, said he did not want that aid, that he would get it elsewhere. : It was recently reported that some 600 Nicaraguan soldiers were transported to Guatemala in Israeli planes last February to combat the forces of the Guerrilla Army of the Poor. The news was announced after it was learried that the Green Berets were *‘Guatemala has a foreign debt of some $450 million... Meanwhile, the people live in hunger and misery.” Is one of those who disappeared. Below left: poverty and‘misery characterize the lives of these Guatemalan indians. s Guillermo Toriello PACIFIC. TRIBUNE—NOVEMBER 4, 1977—Page 9