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Israel has a history of nurturing relations with Latin American militaries but alienating grassroots organizations and democratic movements that continues to this day.
In the 1970s, Israel began selling weapons to Latin America under the aegis of the United States, explains Jane Hunter in her book Israeli Foreign Policy, South Africa and Central America. She writes:
In 1973 Israel took orders from El Salvador for 18 Dassault Ouragan jetfighters aircraft. This was the first step, but then more weapons and military advice followed under the Reagan administration. Israel trained contra mercenary forces in Nicaragua and then expanded its mission to participate in the training for the rural "pacification" of the population of El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Honduras, under the guise of an innovative technical assistance program.
Hunter defines rural "pacification" as "an attempt to suppress forever a people's ability to organize against an oppressive order."
Some were aware of the Israeli role in these operations, as in 1979 the FMLN (Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front) of El Salvador kidnapped Israel honorary consul Ernesto liebes, executing him as a war criminal for facilitating the aircraft sale.
Israel started selling weapons to Guatemala in 1974, beginning with the Arava aircraft, followed by "RBY armored personnel carriers, patrol boats, light cannons, grenade launchers, machine guns, and 15,000 Galil assault rifles," Hunter continues. "...The aspect of Israeli cooperation with Guatemala which has the most serious implications is the role played by Israeli personnel in the universally condemned rural pacification program." In 1982, Israel military advisors had helped develop and conduct the devastating scorched-earth policy that General Rios Montt unleashed on the highland Maya population.
She then quotes the Guatemalan writer Victor Ferrera: "Uzi and the larger Galil assault rifles used by Guatemala's counterinsurgency forces accounted for at least half of the estimated 45,000 Guatemalan Indians...