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By Root 2713 0

hope for the future . . . the spirit of hopefulness.” Jack Brier also observed “a spirit of hopefulness about the future, but not necessarily confidence in whatever actions may come about as a result of the elections.” (This is a very nuanced distinction that Brier was able to make on the basis of translated brief answers by a few voters.) Tom Kahn claimed that “many of the workers whom we spoke to on the voting lines told us that they had great hope, that this was a first step.” Kahn was asked during the press conference whether he had visited any of the embattled Coca-Cola workers. He hadn’t. Neither Kahn nor his AIFLD colleague, Jesse Friedman, mentioned the enormous decline in union membership or the decimation of union leadership by murder.

2. Long lines, patient voters. The observers were deeply impressed with “the way the people patiently waited” to vote (Regula). Howard Penniman noted “the extraordinary patience of the people voting.” Ed Simcox pointed out that the voters “did go out, they formed lines very early in the morning, they waited in some instances two, three, four hours to go up and vote.” According to Congressman Hightower, “The thing that impressed us instantly was the long lines.” Tom Kahn was impressed with the “calm and order which prevailed around the voting tables.”

Long lines and patient voters are quite compatible with voting by a terrorized population desiring mainly to survive. The official observers, who never once mention the record of spectacular state terror in Guatemala, merely postulate that voters who get in line and wait patiently do so for reasons that are benign.

3. The patriotic imperative. The main theme of this observer team is that the voters are eager to vote as good patriots, loyal to the militarized terrorist state that Ronald Reagan and the State Department find acceptable. Max Singer says that “I did sense that Guatemalans feel that voting is important to them.” (This is correct, but Singer was not contemplating the possibility that its importance to them might lie in fear and a desire to avoid retribution by the omnipresent army.) Regula said that the people were patiently waiting “for an opportunity to share in the process of choosing the constituent assembly.” According to Simcox, “They know that this was the patriotic thing to do, that this was important for their country.” Tom Kahn found that the people he talked to in voting lines “expressed a great sense of national pride.”

4. Absence of any sign of coercion. Father Kenneth Baker stated that “there seemed to be a general atmosphere of no intimidation.” Baker didn’t say how he sensed this atmosphere, and whether it was assuredly reliable in a foreign country observed for a day under military guard. Baker referred to the bishops having urged people to vote, but he failed to note their extended observations suggesting that a meaningful election couldn’t be held in an environment of disappearances, terror, and catastrophic socioeconomic conditions. Jack Brier saw “absolutely no violence. I saw no evidence of direct military involvement.” A problem that Brier doesn’t discuss is that if pacification is thorough, no violence or substantial military presence will be necessary to confirm military choices. There is absolutely no violence or evidence of direct military involvement in elections in the Soviet Union. Brier plays dumb, pretending that violence on election day is really relevant, and ignoring the long-term violence that strips away institutional protections and produces a terrorized population.2 Congressman Mickey Edwards did find a military presence in Guatemala, but it was not “oppressive”: “We did not find anything to indicate that the people in those areas were under any pressure or intimidation.” How hard Edwards looked must remain in doubt.3

5. Amazing turnout. Jack Brier referred to the “surprisingly large turnout,” and Ed Simcox found the 60–70 percent turnout “really an incredibly positive statistic.” Even the U.S. embassy noted that voting in Guatemala is compulsory (although it tried to discount this