Read

User menu

Search form

Genocide Trial Opens for Guatemala's Ex-Leader

Genocide Trial Opens for Guatemala's Ex-Leader
Thu, 3/21/2013 - by Al Jazeera

The trial of General Efrain Rios Montt, 86, the former U.S.-backed de facto president of Guatemala, has begun over the killing of almost 1,800 indigenous people during his country's civil war.

Rios Montt, 86, seized power in a coup in March 1982 and ruled until he was overthrown in August 1983.

Prosecutors alleged on Tuesday that Rios Montt "turned a blind eye" as soldiers used rape, torture and arson against leftist fighters and targeted indigenous people in a "scorched earth" offensive that killed at least 1,771 members of the Mayan Ixil group.

Nicolas Brito, an indigenous Ixil, was the first of at least 150 witnesses expected to give their testimony in the trial of the first Latin American leader to be tried on genocide charges in his own country.

Brito told how he escaped the army's 1982 attack on the village of Canaque in Santa Maria Nebaja before they burned and destroyed it.

He said he saw the soldiers kill many women who were unable to flee because they were preparing tortilla dough when the army arrived.

"The soldiers tore the victims' hearts out and put them on a little table," Brito said. "They piled them there."

Jose Rodriguez Sanchez, 68, a former high-ranking member of the military chiefs of staff, is also being tried with Rios Montt.

Lawyer expelled

The defense team had delayed the court case with a series of appeals and argued that there was no genocide in Guatemala.

The team also said Rios Montt did not control battlefield operations.

Francisco Garcia Gudiel, one of Rios Montt's lawyers, told the court: "Jose Efrain Rios Montt never gave a written or verbal order to exterminate the Ixils in this country."

The trial was disrupted when Gudiel was expelled after he said Judge Jazmin Barrios was biased against him because they had clashed in previous trials. The three-judge panel rejected his argument and ordered him out of the courtroom.

The defence team tried to get the lawyer for one of Rios Montt's co-defendants to represent Rios Montt.

After a brief and loud argument from that lawyer, the panel finally assigned a third lawyer to represent Rios Montt.

Absolute power

The prosecution says it has no evidence of a direct order from Rios Montt to slaughter civilians during the country's long civil war.

However, the prosecutors hope to prove through a detailed recreation of the military chain of command that Rios Montt must have had knowledge of the massacres of the Ixil and others in the Guatemalan highlands.

Prosecutors alleged Rios Montt's failure to stop the slaughter was proof of his guilt because he held absolute power over the military government.

Rios Montt was protected from prosecution for decades as a congressman by a law that grants immunity to public officials.

Indigenous activists demonstrated outside the court in support of his alleged victims on Tuesday morning.

Former members of government-backed paramilitary groups blamed for many of the killings showed their support for the accused.

3 WAYS TO SHOW YOUR SUPPORT

ONE-TIME DONATION

Just use the simple form below to make a single direct donation.

DONATE NOW

MONTHLY DONATION

Be a sustaining sponsor. Give a reacurring monthly donation at any level.

GET SOME MERCH!

Now you can wear your support too! From T-Shirts to tote bags.

SHOP TODAY

Sign Up

Article Tabs

This last month has shown America that society will gladly tolerate vigilante violence, provided a vigilante chooses the right target.

President-elect Donald Trump isn’t just appointing incompetent buffoons to his Cabinet, but deeply immoral individuals who are completely lacking in family values.

Biden cared more about the appearance of having an independent DOJ untainted by politics than he did about holding an unrepentant criminal ex-president accountable.

The American people clearly spoke, and the drubbing Democrats received requires looking beyond just issue polls, voting patterns, campaign strategy, or get-out-the-vote tactics.

The recent decisions by two of the most influential national newspapers of record to not publish their endorsements of Vice President Kamala Harris says a lot about how seriously they take Trump’s threats to democracy and his promises of vengeance against his enemies.

This last month has shown America that society will gladly tolerate vigilante violence, provided a vigilante chooses the right target.

If the Democrats’ theme of 2017 was Resistance, the theme for Democrats in 2025 needs to instead be Opposition — and these two GOP senators may be the models to emulate.

President-elect Donald Trump isn’t just appointing incompetent buffoons to his Cabinet, but deeply immoral individuals who are completely lacking in family values.

Biden cared more about the appearance of having an independent DOJ untainted by politics than he did about holding an unrepentant criminal ex-president accountable.

The country has never moved as close to the course it took under Benito Mussolini as it is doing now — and even if Meloni is not a neo-fascist politician, she has put herself in a position to appeal to and broaden fascism's political base.

This last month has shown America that society will gladly tolerate vigilante violence, provided a vigilante chooses the right target.

Posted 3 weeks 5 days ago

Biden cared more about the appearance of having an independent DOJ untainted by politics than he did about holding an unrepentant criminal ex-president accountable.

Posted 1 month 2 weeks ago

President-elect Donald Trump isn’t just appointing incompetent buffoons to his Cabinet, but deeply immoral individuals who are completely lacking in family values.

Posted 1 month 3 days ago

If the Democrats’ theme of 2017 was Resistance, the theme for Democrats in 2025 needs to instead be Opposition — and these two GOP senators may be the models to emulate.

Posted 1 month 3 days ago

The country has never moved as close to the course it took under Benito Mussolini as it is doing now — and even if Meloni is not a neo-fascist politician, she has put herself in a position to appeal to and broaden fascism's political base.

Posted 1 month 2 weeks ago

This last month has shown America that society will gladly tolerate vigilante violence, provided a vigilante chooses the right target.