Guatemala received a shipment of weapons and military equipment from the United States on Sept. 21, the first in a series of commercial exchanges set to total $5 million. Weapons transfers to the country had been formally frozen since the administration of President Jimmy Carter restricted arms sales [9] in 1977 due to the Guatemalan military's record of human rights abuses during the country's civil war. The ban was lifted in March, after months of deepening security ties [10] between the two countries.
President Bernardo Arévalo was quick to differentiate the country's current military forces from their predecessors. However, this was not the first delivery [12] of military equipment since 1977 [13]. The flow of war material to the country’s armed forces resumed [14] after Ronald Reagan partially lifted the ban [15] in 1983 and provided [16] spare parts to the Guatemalan government, chiefly for aircraft in the counter-insurgency campaign [17], despite having information about the ongoing genocide of Mayan communities.
From NACLA Update [18], Sept. 25
