by genocidal maniac Rios-Montt's former official, current President Otto Molina. From the article:

The Return of the Military

Since 2012, Perez Molina's administration has overseen the rapid expansion of the Guatemalan military into the internal law enforcement realm. This turn is not surprising: During the internal armed conflict of the 1980s, Pérez Molina was a commander of the Kabiles, an elite Commando unit in the Ixil region responsible for the genocide against the Ixil people in the highlands of Guatemala during the dictatorship of Efrain Rios Montt. In the months after Pérez Molina's election, soldiers once again patrolled the streets of Guatemala City and tourist towns such as Antigua Guatemala.

Human rights advocates, such as the Washington DC-based Guatemalan Human Rights Commission, have raised concerns about the increased militarization of daily life in Guatemala. They also point to the increased presence of the military in law enforcement as a violation of the peace accords.

The peace accords had separated the national police force from the military and removed the military from domestic law enforcement. Prior to the end of the war, Guatemala did not have a civilian police force that was separate from the military; the 1996 agreements led to the creation of a civilian police force, the National Civilian Police (PNC). But in the 20 years since the peace agreements, the military has increasingly been deployed to the sites of protests, and utilized against communities in resistance to mining, hydroelectric projects and the expansion of African Palm oil into their communities.

From 1960 to 1996, Guatemala was entrenched in an armed conflict between the Guatemalan government and Marxist guerrillas. Over 250,000 people were killed and 45,000 people were disappeared. The indigenous Mayan communities were those most heavily affected.

The Guatemalan Truth commission determined that 93 percent of all atrocities were committed by the military, with only 3 percent being committed by the guerillas. The commission was unable to determine who was responsible for the remaining 4 percent.........

Officially, the states of exceptions and sieges are declared to combat criminals, drug trafficking, or to return "peace" to communities. Yet all too often, the military uses the state of exception to imprison leaders from the various resistance movements for alleged past crimes and to intimidate communities in resistance.

"The use of the military is psychological," Juan Roberto Buzoc Che, a Q'ueqchi' Maya from Coban Alta Verapaz who works with The Mayan Association for Community Service and Development (ASOMADIC), told Truthout. "The military has historically been used against the indigenous populations; it has been used to violate women; it has been used to assassinate the people. Today, the response is to use all of the force of the military and police against those who are defending their land."

The presence of soldiers in the largely indigenous communities has put the various social movements on edge and opened old wounds in the collective memory of indigenous communities.

"It feels as if we are returning to the era of the internal armed conflict," said one community leader from San Juan Sacatepéquez, after the government declared a state of exception in 12 Kaqchikel communities in the municipality of San Juan Sacatepéquez, an hour from Guatemala City. "The military is once again in our communities. The state is protecting the interests of the businesses and not of the communities in struggle."

Historically, the Guatemalan oligarchy, made up of 8 economically powerful families, has utilized the military to maintain their stranglehold on the Guatemalan economy. This has been the case since the mid-1800s, when they formed an alliance with the military....