Óscar Humberto Mejía Víctores
Brigadier General Óscar Humberto Mejía Víctores | |
---|---|
27th Head of State of Guatemala | |
In office August 8, 1983 – January 14, 1986 | |
Deputy | Rodolfo Lobos Zamora |
Preceded by | Efraín Ríos Montt |
Succeeded by | Vinicio Cerezo |
Personal details | |
Born | Guatemala City | December 9, 1930
Died | February 1, 2016 Guatemala City | (aged 85)
Spouse | Aura Rosario Rosal López |
Mejía Víctores regime
Return to democratic appearances
Ríos Montt was deposed on 8 August 1983 by his own
Continuing terror
By the time Mejía Víctores assumed power, the counterinsurgency under Lucas García and Ríos Montt had largely succeeded in its objective of detaching the insurgency from its civilian support base. Additionally, Guatemalan military intelligence (G-2) had succeeded in infiltrating most of the political institutions. It eradicated opponents in the government through terror and selective assassinations. The counterinsurgency program had militarized Guatemalan society, creating a fearful atmosphere of terror that suppressed most public agitation and insurgency. The military had consolidated its power in virtually all sectors of society.[6]
In 1983, indigenous activist
After the August 1983 coup, both the U.S. intelligence community and human rights observers noted that while cases of human rights abuses in rural Guatemala were on the decline, death squad activity in the city was on the rise. Additionally, as the levels of wholesale extrajudicial killings and massacres decreased, the rates of abduction and
Under Lucas García, part of the modus operandi of government repression during the Mejía government involved interrogating victims at military bases, police stations, or government safe houses. Information about alleged connections with insurgents was "extracted through torture." The security forces used the information to make joint military/police raids on suspected guerrilla safe-houses throughout Guatemala City. In the process, the government secretly captured hundreds of individuals who were never seen again or whose bodies were later found showing signs of torture and mutilation. Such activities were often carried out by specialized units of the National Police.[9] Between 1984 and 1986, the secret police (G-2) maintained an operations center for the counterinsurgency programs in southwest Guatemala at the southern airbase at Retalhuleu. There, the G-2 operated a clandestine interrogation center for suspected insurgents and collaborators. Captured suspects were reportedly detained in water-filled pits along the perimeter of the base, which was covered with cages. To avoid drowning, prisoners were forced to hold onto the cages over the pits. The bodies of prisoners tortured to death and live prisoners marked for disappearance were thrown out of IAI-201 Aravas by the Guatemalan Air Force over the Pacific Ocean ("death flights").[10]
Along with former Presidents José Efraín Ríos Montt and Fernando Romeo Lucas García, President Mejía was charged with murder, kidnapping and genocide in a Spanish court.
Notes
- ^ [dead link]"Stanford Magazine". Stanfordalumni.org. June 1999. Archived from the original on 5 July 2008. Retrieved 3 September 2009.
When some autobiographical details in the book were challenged, the Nobel Committee stated that they did not consider this grounds for rescinding the award for her work
References
- ^ "Óscar Mejía Victores, Guatemalan military ruler of mid-1980s, dies at 85 - The Washington Post". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 3 February 2016.
- ^ Almanac of Famous People: Biographies at Google Books
- ISBN 978-0-985-82041-1.
- ^ Pike n.d.
- ^ Americas Watch and British Parliamentary Human Rights Group: 1987
- ^ CIDH 1999.
- ^ CIA 1983.
- ^ US Department of State 1986.
- ^ Guatemala's Disappeared: 1977-86.
- ^ Defense Intelligence Agency 1994.
Bibliography
- CIA (29 October 1983). GUATEMALA: Political Violence. George Washington University: CIA, top secret intelligence report.
- CIDH (1999). "Organizing and Repression in the University of San Carlos, Guatemala, 1944 to 1996: 1983–1989: The Illusion of Democracy". SHR, AAAS. Archived from the original on 6 May 2013. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
- CIDH (1981). "Guatemala 1981, Chapter IX". CIDH. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
- Defense Intelligence Agency (30 June 1983). Possible Coup in Guatemala (PDF). National Security Archive Electronic. Vol. Briefing Book No. 32. George Washington University: Defense Intelligence Agency, secret cable Section 3.
- Defense Intelligence Agency (11 April 1994). Suspected Presence of Clandestine Cemeteries on a Military Installation (PDF). George Washington University: Defense Intelligence Agency, secret message.
- Pike, John (n.d.). "Guatemala". Globalsecurity.org. Retrieved 3 September 2009.
- US Department of State (23 October 1967). Guatemala: A Counter-Insurgency Running Wild? (PDF). National Security Archive Electronic. Vol. Briefing Book No. 32. George Washington University: National Security Archive. p. 1.
- US State Department (1967). "Guatemala". Assignment terror: The Army's Special Unit. National Security Archive Electronic. Vol. Briefing Book No. George Washington University: National Security Archive.
- US Department of State (28 March 1986). Guatemala's Disappeared: 1977-86. George Washington University: Department of State, secret report.