By Allan Nairn
Comment about human rights in Central America. Last December, on the day after the invasion of Panama, the "Wall Street Journal"wrote that Manuel Noriega had "learned, and others like him should take note, that there are limits to the uncivilized behavior that the US will accept or endure." American and Panamanian forces have openly raided newspaper offices and union halls and rounded up hundreds of dissidents--among them a prominent newspaper publisher who wrote a column criticizing the invasion and the law professor who negotiated the 1977 Canal Treaties on behalf of the Panamanians... In El Salvador, meanwhile, the press spotlight has moved on. Human-rights observers say that more than 2 dozen members of such groups have been killed or"disappeared"since last November, and their offices have been invaded & sacked... Ever since 1978, Guatemala has been one of the worst countries in the world for per-capita army killings of civilians, but in the last year the carnage has reached new levels... All this is happening under an ostensibly civilian government, which has been described by the Bush Administration as a"democratic success story." Tells about the history of support for Guatemalan regimes by US political forces... Tells how the media supports the view that all is well, especially in Guatemala, while America's Watch, Amnesty International and Guatemala's 3 independent human rights groups all published information to the contrary. Writer compares this with Orwell's "1984."