Ignorance is Bliss�Or is It?!
Through the miracle that is the internet I met my surrogate older sister V. This woman epitomizes and embodies all that I want to be, when I grow up, should God see fit to bless me into the realm of Wifedom and Motherhood. V is an amazing woman. Period. On a regular she sends me email which gives me something to think about, research and discuss with her. I have not yet had an opportunity to research what I have reprinted below for you, but rest assured I will. In the meantime read it over, think it over, research it and get back to me. I live for interesting, intelligent discussion.
-----Original Message-----
From: VA
Sent: Friday, November 08, 2002 1:53 PM
Subject: FW: Genocide
Forgotten History - Friday, November 8, 2002
"Little known facts and overlooked history"
Genocide
By Denis Mueller
"I didn't know. But is it only an excuse? I can't think of any other. I didn't know that evil was going on-was still going on." Elie Wiesel, 1976.
These words written by Weisel were not about the Jewish experience. He was speaking to the genocide in Paraguay during the 1960's and 1970's. There 85% of the Ache Indians had been hunted down and killed by teams of executioners operating under the control of President Alfredo Stroessner who was one of the dictators that the US government supported. The natives were hunted down for pleasure; young girls were raped and sold; children were killed in front of their parents by a brutal dictatorship.
This is what went on in Latin America while the whole world fell silent. Another one of the government that we supported was Columbia. There 180,000 Indians were being cleared from the rain forests and virtually exterminated. They used guns and hatchets to clear them while the Texaco Oil Company began explorations for oil.
In Brazil the fascist government, again supported by us, began similar onslaughts. The government had entered into development relationships with Bethlehem Steel, Texaco Oil, Gulf Oil, Caterpillar and Westinghouse among others. There objective was to clear the rainforests.
This went on throughout Latin America. In Chile, another one of our allies, Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was destroying reservations held by the Mapuches. Torture, murder and death were the common. Similar activities occurred in Bolivia. But perhaps the worst of these incidents occurred in Guatemala. In 1954 a CIA led coup overthrew the elected government. Their crime was to call for land reform to give the Indians a piece of the land they lived on. Even though the government said it would pay United Fruit for the rights the company pressured the Eisenhower government and it was decided that they had to go. A succession of governments followed and over 100,000 people were slaughtered.
Many times the military went berserk, butchering Indians and throwing their bones in mass graves. This went on for years and was repeated in El Salvador where babies were stabbed with bayonets. By 1980 over 30,000 Indians had been exterminated. The death squads were supported by the Reagan government and others like Boston University President John Silber.
All in all this has been the way natives have been treated since the time of Columbus. Throughout the America's they have been killed in the most gruesome fashion and the very governments that have done this were supported by our government. It is disgusting. So when we wonder why the world now hates us we forget that in many ways this is the United States they know. Our history books neglect to tell this because it contradicts the official version of our history.
Sources: Ward Churchill: Since Predator Came