On Dec. 2, the Guatemalan Army massacred at least 14 unarmed civilians protesting military abuses, by spraying them with machine-gun fire.
The massacre is symptomatic of a military that shows no compunction about turning its weapons on its own citizenry. Since the Central Intelligence Agency-sponsored coup of 1954, Guatemalans have lived in fear of the security forces, trained and sponsored by the United States, who are responsible for most of the killings of 100,000 Guatemalans in the last 30 years. As with past outrages committed by this faithful United States ally, the event received scant and ambiguous coverage from you: a wire service article headlined "Guatemala Troops Said to Kill 11 Protesting Raid." The Guatemalan military enjoys more than the material and moral support of the United States Government -- inadequate news media coverage in this country allows it to slaughter its citizens outside the scrutiny of American taxpayers.
While Cuba and Nicaragua have become synonymous (until recently in the case of Nicaragua) with the evils of Communism, Guatemala remains an enigma for most Americans. Last summer, when Cuban authorities tried to prevent their citizens from entering foreign embassies, you covered it with a slew of prominent articles. In stark contrast, you have not devoted a single article to the involvement of G-2, Guatemalan military intelligence, which works closely with United States advisers, in the killings and disappearances last year of 10 student leaders.
You covered the 1988 massacre of 22 farm workers in Aguacate, Guatemala, with a single article that erroneously suggested guerrillas were responsible. Despite subsequent investigations by Americas Watch and Amnesty International implicating the military in this gruesome act, you published no follow-up.
The rare articles that touch directly on the horrors of Guatemala tend to be short, ambiguous and without context, as with this "news" of the most recent killings. Someone reading of this event would have no way of understanding the dominant role of the United States in Guatemalan affairs or our complicity, through the military training and aid we supply, in the massacre. Thus, readers who rely on you for international news are deprived of the opportunity to press their elected representatives about our policy toward Guatemala, a country very much within our sphere of influence.
It is ironic that United States citizens are kept so well informed about the evils committed by our "enemies," but left largely in the dark about equally pernicious abuses committed by "friendly" governments with our blessings and material support. CHRIS JOCHNICK Cambridge, Mass., Dec. 17, 1990 The writer is former director of the Spanish Language Institute in Guatemala City.