their homes. The overall estimate by the revolutionary movements of the victims of the military terror in the last year puts the figure at 3,000.
The crimes which the Guatemalan tyrants, the puppets of the CIA, are conmmitting against the Guatemalan people and its active vanguard must be made known to the whole world. All members of revolutionary groups or persons "suspected" as such who are arrested by the police or captured by the army in its continual raids are subjected to bestial tortures, which would be unbelievable if we did not know that the imperialists are using them today in Vietnam on a level of mass extermination.
As in Vietnam, Méndez Montenegro's "constitutional" government in Guatemala castrates prisoners, tears off their lips, cuts off their left hands and ears, tears out their fingernails, forces them to assume degrading postures and inflicts innumerable other tortures on them (one of the most common is putting a plastic bag filled with DDT powder on their heads -this torture destroys the lungs). In addition, the women are gang-raped. Many of the tormented and dying prisoners are finished off with machete blows. Finally, not even their bodies are respected -it is a common practice of the army to
decapitate them. Thus, they turn up muti-
lated on some river bank or in some hol-
low, or else they are dumped in a common
grave.
: What about the rumors in the
pourgeots press that Yon Sosa was wounded?
A: In the department of Izabal, at
the beginning of the big military offfen-
sive against the guerrillas, Yon Sosa was
in fact wounded in both legs. He is com-
pletely recovered now.
Q@: Finally, we would like your
opinion on the MR-14's break with the
Posadistas.
A: That question requires some
preliminary explanations. First of all,
I want to make it known that the MR-13
was always under the impression the
Posadas group belonged to the Fourth
International. As you will be able to
see in the first issue of the new series
of our organ Revolucién Socialista we
say that among the various causes which
delayed their expulsion for more than a
year was the question of "definitively
breaking with the Fourth International
(Trotskyist)." The statement which the
Fourth International published regarding
the MR-13's first revolutionary people's
tribunal which expelled these compafieros
is very interesting. *
One more thing should be said.
These four compafieros were not expelled
because of their ideology but because
they did not acknowledge their enormous
error. By their attitude they showed
that they would do the same thing in
similar circumstances.
If they were not shot at the tri-
bunal, it was because it was recognized
that for thei the motive of their action
was just and beneficial. One of them ad-
mitted his error but the other three
displayed their arrogance and lack of
self-criticism by failing to do so. It
was for this reason that they were ex-
pelled. Perhaps this would not have been
the decision if they had recognized their
fault.
The death of Francisco Amado and
the other compafieros, including members
of this group, became known later. When
* This refers to the statement of the
United Secretariat of the Fourth Inter-
national on the expulsion of members of
the Posadista group from the MR-13 for
taking funds, seized in expropriations,
and diverting them without agreement
or even consultation to help finance
Posadista publications in other coun-
tries. (See World Outlook, July 29, 1966;
and Cuarta Internacional, No. 6.]
the trial took place the fate of these compafieros was not known with certainty. Perhaps the MR-1%3 would have handled this affair differently if-it had known about the death of the majority of its leading compafieros. What I tend to doubt is that these circumstances would have changed the behavior of the three.
On the other hand, to conclude, I want to say that the socialist progran, this fundamental element of our struggle reached Guatemala through them. This is a historic fact. It does not mean that we would have been incapable of discovering it independently. This, in fact, was the tendency of the most advanced groups before their arrival. For example, the
WHY KHE SANH IS CRUCIAL
AAR ‘Y 4. \
CAREER BLIGHTED? group from the Juventud Patriotica del Trabajo [Patriotic Worker Youth], to which I belonged, split from that organization when they began developing a socialist outlook. Although this outlook was vague, it was tending to develop in the direction of clearer and more precise positions. Their contribution [the Posadistas] was to shorten this period of clarification. This positive achievement of their activity in Guatemala remains despite their errors in other areas, errors, which like the one which precipitated their expulsion, were tremendous at times. If this is true, it is because the socialist program is not the property of any particular group but of the entire authentically revolutionary movement.
FOR GEN. WESTMORELAND
The rumors persist in Washington that Gen. William C. Westmoreland, who up to now has been a favorite of the White House, may soon be eased out as commander of the U.S. troops in Vietnan.
Johnson, however, has strenuously denied that he is considering informing Westmoreland that his resignation has been accepted. Instead, Johnson has indicated he might promote his favorite to head the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
According to a dispatch by Keyes Beech, datelined Da Nang and published in the February 21 New York Post, the outcome of the impending battle of Khe Sanh may determine whether Westmoreland's career is finished or is to be crowned with fresh commendations from Johnson.
U.S. marines on the firing line in Khe Sanh, according to the account, are saying privately that this "remote patch" is not worth defending. They say, "the only reason we are there is because Westy says so."
Khe Sanh has become a "symbol" in the military career of the