Complete Thesis_double spaced abstract.pdf

The relationship between Guatemala and the United States was purported to have
transformed under President Jimmy Carter (1976-1980). In reality human rights groups and
certain members of the international community had already begun pressuring President Ford in
1975 to reduce or eliminate military aid and weapons sales to Guatemala. President Carter
attempted to impose human rights conditions on military aid sent to Guatemala. The United
States Congress passed the Foreign Assistance and Related Programs Appropriations Act in 1978
that directly tied the receipt of military aid to improvements in human rights conditions.
Guatemala responded by refusing any aid with human rights conditionality and assassinating the
centrist candidates supported by the Carter administration. The United States never truly
eliminated all aid to Guatemala during Carter’s term, “more than $34 million worth of US
military equipment wormed its way into Guatemala…under contracts licensed by Department of
Commerce” (Black, 1984, 147).
From 1950-1995 Guatemala had been largely dependent on the United States as a source
for ODA, for the training of military personnel in counterinsurgency techniques, and as a
purchaser of exports and supplier of imports. However, Guatemala also received support from a
variety of states throughout the world. Argentina, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Germany,
China, South Africa, and Spain were a few of the states purchasing exports, and acting as a source
of ODA and military arms (Black, 1984, 153). One of Guatemala’s more enduring relationships
was with Israel. Guatemala’s relationship with Israel began in 1948, “Guatemala provided one of
the three United Nations commissioners charged with overseeing the creation of the Jewish
state;” the commissioner was Jorge Garcia Granados a “close political associate of General
Lucas” (Black, 1984, 155). However, it was not until the United States State Department report
in 1977 and the subsequent action by the Carter administration that Guatemala began to rely more
exclusively on Israel for the purchase of arms for the military. Israel played a key role in the
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