Last month, former military general Otto Pérez Molina was inaugurated as President of Guatemala. After losing the 2007 presidential race as the standard bearer for the Patriotic Party (running under the slogan of "Mano dura, cabeza y corazón" -- "Firm hand, head and heart"), Pérez Molina emerged victorious in November of last year. Pérez Molina was the first former military officer to be elected since the country's return to democracy in 1986.

Recently, the National Security Archive, a Web site dedicated to "Challenging government secrecy, informing the public debate through access to declassified documents, ensuring government accountability, and defending the right to know in the US and abroad," cited "previously posted documents that detail[ed] Pérez Molina's military career and link[ed] him to human rights atrocities committed during Guatemala's 36-year internal conflict. The documents provide evidence of the retired General's involvement in `scorched earth' campaigns [orchestrated by former military dictator General Efraín Ríos Montt] in the 1980s and an account of his rise to high levels of influence and power within the Guatemalan intelligence apparatus."

After taking office, Otto Pérez Molina appointed Harold Caballeros as head of the country's Foreign Ministry. Who is Harold Caballeros and why should we care that he has ascended to such a high government position?

Harold Caballeros and the New Apostolic Reformation

According to researcher, investigative journalist and Talk2Action co-founder Bruce Wilson, Harold Caballeros has "links to government figures accused of human rights violations and perhaps death squads, and his demonizing of religious beliefs held by Guatemala's native Mayan population - targeted by the military for massacres and torture during Guatemala's civil war, raise troubling questions."

In addition, Caballeros, the founder and senior pastor of El Shaddai Church in Guatemala City, has a close relationship with members of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). The New Apostolic Reformation is still a relatively unknown and under-reported religious/political movement. It is the brainchild of C. Peter Wagner, a former Fuller Theological Seminary church-growth expert and partner of the now disgraced (but always poised for a comeback) Ted Haggard.

In a March 2010 interview for AlterNet, researcher and Talk2Action contributor Rachel Tabachnick explained how the New Apostolic Reformation functioned: "Imagine for a moment that a large block of the evangelical world decided to re-organize themselves in a hierarchy somewhat resembling the Roman Catholic Church, with leaders in authority over each nation and region. And additionally imagine that every person -- from the individual congregants to the top leaders -- would have someone to whom they are accountable. It seems unthinkable, but this is exactly what the `apostles' and `prophets' [of the NAR] are doing.

"This is not just a church movement. [Those called] market apostles work in business, finance, communications, media and also lead the Reclaiming the Seven Mountains of Culture mandate. ... Apostles are also active providing social services, which Wagner describes as a method for accessing government and society."

Earlier this month, Bruce Wilson reported at Talk2Action that Caballeros has played "many roles in C. Peter Wagner's burgeoning NAR include being listed as an apostle in the International Coalition of Apostles, from when the ICA was first launched in 2001 up through 2010, the year that the ICA took down its publicly-accessible `short list' of apostles from the ICA website and moved the list to a password-protected section of the site accessible to ICA members only."

The International Coalition of Apostles claims to be comprised of "over 500 apostles globally" that "advise heads of Fortune 500 companies and run multimillion dollar international corporate ventures." Apparently, Wilson reported, ICA members "have prayed together with Barack Obama and claim to advise his presidential administration, have been granted official state dinners by the President and First Lady of Uganda, and claim the current president of South Korea as one of their own." Wilson noted that the Republican Party's 2008 vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, "was extensively tied to the NAR and its ICA apostles."

Wilson pointed out that Caballeros is "acknowledged" within the NAR as "one of the pioneers of the movement's distinctive ideas and practices concerning `Spiritual Mapping.'" Wilson cited "Rene' Holvast, author of a dissertation and book about the NAR and Spiritual Mapping [who argues that] these practices are anything but apolitical or purely `spiritualized.'

During the 1990 election year, Holvast wrote, "Caballeros started to send out Spiritual Mapping teams on a national level to `clear the way' for the national elections. The teams did Spiritual Mapping in each state in Guatemala. They identified `three powerful human beings who were being used by the spiritual forces of darkness as strongmen', two of whom were presidential candidates, rating higher in the polls than [Jorge] Serrano [Elias]. The first two candidates dropped out after warfare prayer, resulting, according to [C. Peter] Wagner, in a record-breaking victory for Jorge Serrano Elías."

Wilson reported that "Other academic accounts of Caballeros' campaign, which was titled `Jesus is Lord of Guatemala,' describe the El Shaddai pastor's ambitious attempt to reach out to every evangelical protestant pastor in the country, in order to build a prayer warrior army fifty thousand people strong that could break an ancient curse Caballeros claimed afflicted his country.

".... In his writings, Caballeros has asserted that poverty and violence which have troubled Guatemala and Central America can be blamed, rather than on historical factors such as the legacy of Spanish colonialism or United States military interventions, on a pact that Caballeros says the ancient Mayan people made with Satan through worshiping the serpent god Quetzalcoatl."

In 2007, Caballeros launched what turned out to be an unsuccessful bid for the presidency. Wilson noted that "in the January 2007 print edition of Charisma magazine, which has served as a de facto journalistic flagship publication for the New Apostolic Reformation quoted C. Peter Wagner concerning Caballeros' candidacy: `Christians in the global South are way ahead of us in this area,' Wagner said. `The values of the kingdom of God should penetrate every level of society, and they understand that. ... [Caballeros is] doing it right, going right to the top and taking dominion.'"

Recently, an American Jewish Committee delegation met in Guatemala with President Otto Pérez Molina and Harold Caballeros. An AJC Press Release noted that topics of discussion with the President and Foreign Minister included Guatemala's position, since January 1, as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council; Guatemala-U.S. bilateral relations; regional issues, including Iranian efforts to make inroads in the Western Hemisphere; and issues of particular concern to the Jewish community.

One of Caballeros' main tasks might consist of working "to lift a long-standing [U.S.] ban on military aid to his country, imposed due to human rights concerns," Wilson pointed out.

The AJC's Executive Director David Harris noted that "while faced with significant domestic and regional challenges, [Guatemala] stands today as a valued friend of the U.S. and Israel, and committed to playing a constructive role as a newly-minted member of the Security Council."

While even considering the legalization of the drug trade will not sit well with the U.S., Guatemala doing the "right thing" in the eyes of the U.S. as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, and the AJC's positive report are the types of things that Pérez Molina and Caballeros need if they are to get the U.S. ban on military aid lifted.