As a returned Peace Corps volunteer involved in Guatemala in the '80s, I observed Reagan's era. During his terms, hundreds of thousands of Guatemalan Mayan indigenous people were slaughtered, backed by the American government, all in the name of "communism paranoia."



As a returned Peace Corps volunteer involved in Guatemala in the '80s, I observed Reagan's era. During his terms, hundreds of thousands of Guatemalan Mayan indigenous people were slaughtered, backed by the American government, all in the name of "communism paranoia."

Reagan was not a man of peace

While the nation is grieving the death of President Reagan we must remember that he had an ugly side. Personally, I could not call Reagan a "peacemaker" in the Third World. As a returned Peace Corps volunteer involved in the Central American mission in the '80s, I observed Reagan's era. During his terms, hundreds of thousands of Guatemalan Mayan indigenous people were slaughtered, backed by the American government, all in the name of "communism paranoia." If that was not enough in the Central American isthmus, Reagan's America played international political-military games in Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador constantly. As usual, there was no real knowledge about the real problems of the sheer poverty in the Third World.

Before learning even basics about Latinos and Mayan cultures, our nation bullied into a sensitive part of the planet.

Mel Sinderman, Willard