Et tu, Guatemala?

I’ll take this with a grain of salt, considering Cuba’s Prensa Latina sometimes makes more of some minor anti-U.S. sentiment than really exists (as much of the U.S. press does with anti-Cuban sentiment). Still, it’s worth passing on:

Guatemalans Snub Merida Plan
Guatemala, Jun 9 (Prensa Latina) Organizations from the Guatemalan civil society expressed concern over the Merida Plan, a strategy encouraged by the US to have higher military presence in Central America.

“Washington intends to control the air, maritime, and land space, and deploy troops in the region with the pretext of fighting drug trafficking,” the leader of the group “Hijos por la Identidad y la Justicia” (Sons for Identity and Justice), Raul Najera told Prensa Latina.

For the National Fighting Front, gathering about 30 associations, the White House”s project is a version of the Colombia Plan, seeking more intrusion in Central America.

The social organizations rejected the recent visit to Guatemala by US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, who in the 1980s led counterrevolutionary Nicaraguan groups.

hr/dig/car

“It is well known that plan is nothing else than a spearhead of remilitarization in the region,” affirmed Najera, and added it responds to Washington”s reaction to the arrival in power of progressive governments in Latin America.