Letter to President Clinton demanding retraction of support for Guatemalan President General Perez Molina

October 2, 2012

To: Former President Bill Clinton

Dear Mr. Clinton,

Radical Women, a feminist organization with solidarity ties to feminists and human rights activists in Latin America, was disturbed to learn of your special recognition to Guatemalan president General Otto Perez Molina last week. Molina was awarded for work to eliminate hunger. This is a cynical whitewashing of the record of a military leader responsible for the genocide that wracked Guatemala for more than thirty years, causing devastation that is a leading cause of ongoing hunger there now.

Perez Molina now says the genocide never occurred. As President he has militarized the government, closed the Peace Archives, and granted a de facto amnesty to army drug lords. War crimes prosecutions are openly obstructed, and violence and intimidation of agricultural workers and human rights leaders is escalating. This man is no humanitarian. Anyone who believes in human rights and history must not honor him. We urge you to retract any support for this criminal.


Helen Gilbert
National Radical Women