plots, and craft industries to the new community. At one facility men and women produce blankets on handmade looms. All of the work in Acul has a new ideological underpinning. Blankets, for example, have nationalist slogans woven into the textile commemorating the beginning of the new society. Counter-insurgency war in Guatemala has taken a psychological turn. Now that the bond between the people and the guerrillas has been shattered by the shock tactics of phase-one counter-insurgency, the army now hopes to win the hearts and minds of the Indian population with its new phase-two plan—economic redevelopment and political indoctrination. The brutal efficiency of the army’s search-and-destroy policy has left the Ixil civilian population in a state of cultural confusion and crisis. People who were at one time sympathetic to rebel causes, now blame the guerrillas for their suffering, even though they acknowledge that the army dished it out. The Guerrilla Army of the Poor (EGP) did in fact make some disastrous mistakes following the overthrow of Somoza by the Sandinistas in 1979. They mistook Guatemala’s powerful military force for an anemic Nicaraguan National Guard. According to refugee testimony, the rebels made military promises to the highland Indians that could not be kept. When the army moved into the region, the rebels were forced to retreat as the number of civilian deaths hit staggering figures, with estimates well over fifty thousand. That the guerrillas are fighting for social change and the self-determination of their people doesn’t seem to mean much to Ixil Indians now hoping just to survive. At least not for the present time. The army is filling the void it has created with promises of economic development and protection. They are fueling this “new beginning” with a major infusion of money and technical assistance in the area. Many inhabitants of the model villages feel complacent about their new life, even though they now find themselves under the complete control of the military. A controlled society and a forced participation in a civil patrol/defense program is for now a more acceptable existence than the alternative—living on the run with the guerrillas. Population control is the ultimate end to phase-two counter-insurgency. Well-trained by United States and Israeli personnel, the Guatemalan Army now understands that it can control the population by manipulating the food supply and the labor market. Much of the army’s success should be credited to Israel, the major weapons supplier to Guatemala. Since the midSeventies, Israel has provided the Guatemalan Army with a wide range of sophisticated military hardware. Central America Report (December 14,1984) details the type of aid Guatemala is currently receiving: all-terrain Arava planes, Galil assault rifles, Uzi submachine guns, bazookas, 81mm mortars, grenade launchers, RBY-MK light tanks, Dabier patrol boats and hundreds of tons of light arms and ammunition. Beyond the arms supply, the Israeli Tadiran company has reportedly installed a computerized telecommunications system in Guatemala with a military electronics and transmission school. During 1983-84 the army began producing ammunition in a factory operating in the department of Alta Ver- apaz, set up with the assistance of the Israeli Eagle Military Gear firm. During the Rios Montt regime, in 1982, Israel apparently provided the Guatemalan Army with the models for strategic hamlets and civil defense patrols. A Guatemalan military official was quoted as saying, “Many of our technicians have been trained in Israel. The kibbutz and moshav models are very much a part of our spirit.” We walked the town at our own pace with our army escort, Corporal Gutierrez. There was little or no show of weapons. Things changed when we reached the village perimeter. Gutierrez reached into his pocket and pulled out a hand grenade. This was standard practice when A BLISTERING AFTERNOON SUN KEPT DROPPING BEHIND A HEAVY WINDSWEPT FOG. AT THE 9000-FT. ALTITUDE THERE WAS NO CERTAINTY IN THE ELEMENTS, AS IF THE GODS WERE WELCOMING US TO A BLACKNESS IN THE SOUL OF THIS COUNTRY. Clinton St. Quarterly 5
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