On Friday, Guatemalan authorities arrested Daniel Martinez Mendez in Quetzaltepeque,Chiquimula. He was a Kaibil instructor during the conflict. Martinez is one of sixteen soldiers accused of having been involved in the 1982 massacre of over two hundred fifty people of Dos Erres, one of the worst massacres during the military's scorched earth program of the early 1980s.
Of the sixteen sought for their involvement in the massacre, seven have been arrested in Guatemala, one in the United States, and one in Canada. His arrest is good news indeed. I can't help but hope that Guatemalan authorities move quickly to apprehend the seven remaining participants before September's elections.
Should Otto Perez Molina win, I don't envision a radical departure from Colom's social and economic policies. Both support CAFTA and strong relations with the US. Both support a militarized solution to the country's social, political, and economic problems. Finally, both support some version of the First Lady's social programs.
Perez Molina just wants wants - more militarization in fighting crime and more transparency in administering government programs. Of course that is a bit of an oversimplification.
However, one area where we would likely notice change from a Colom / Torres administration to one led by Perez Molina is in the area of the prosecution of formers soldiers accused of having participated in human rights abuses during and after the war. The former general could prove me wrong, but I just don't see it being a priority of his.
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