Military

24 March 2005

U.S. Releasing $3.2 Million in Military Aid to Guatemala

Secretary Rumsfeld praises Guatemala's human-rights gains

By Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- The United States is releasing $3.2 million in military aid to Guatemala, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has announced.

Speaking March 24 in Guatemala City, after holding talks that day with Guatemalan President Oscar Berger, the defense secretary indicated that the aid is intended for a number of uses, including assisting in the training and modernization of Guatemala's armed forces.

Rumsfeld told reporters at a joint news conference with Guatemala's Berger that "this is a magic moment" for Central America, with countries working together to support democracy and economic opportunity across the region. Rumsfeld was in Guatemala at the end of a four-day swing through Latin America, after visiting Argentina and Brazil.

The defense secretary said "growing cooperation" among countries in the region will contribute to increased security in Central America as governments pour resources into fighting drug traffickers and gangs that commit violence against society.

For his part, Berger noted Guatemala's commitment to downsize and modernize its armed forces, while renewing the country's commitment to battle drug traffickers.

Guatemala announced in 2004 that it was cutting the size of its military by about one-half -- from 27,000 soldiers down to 15,500. A U.S.-supported United Nations verification mission in Guatemala hailed that decision as the "most significant change" for the Guatemalan army in decades.

That U.N. mission in Guatemala, known by the Spanish acronym MINUGUA, said the troop cut was fully in keeping with peace accords signed by Guatemala in December 1996 to end the last and longest of Central America's civil conflicts. The internal conflict in Guatemala cost more than 100,000 lives.

The troop cut reduced Guatemala's army to a size comparable to several other Central American nations, said MINUGUA. The U.N. mission ended its work in Guatemala in November 2004.

The U.S. State Department says the United States, as a member of the "Friends of Guatemala" group of nations, played an important role in the U.N.-moderated peace accords in that country. The State Department said the United States strongly supports the six substantive and three procedural accords, which -- along with the signing of the 1996 final peace accord -- form the blueprint for political, economic, and social change in Guatemala.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)