Former Guatemalan Dictator Faces Genocide Charges

Former Guatemalan dictator Gen. Efrain Rios Montt, who ruled the country for 17 months in the early 1980s will stand trial for genocide and crimes against humanity constituting one of the bloodiest periods in the country’s 36-year civil war.

He is the first Latin American head of state to face such charges.

Montt is accused of orchestrating a policy of genocide against Guatemala’s indigenous people in the highland regions. His crimes include the forced displacement of some 29,000 people, the slaughter of 1,771 people in 11 separate massacres, and almost 1,500 acts of sexual violence against women.

“The victims of Rios Montt were largely uneducated peasants: even screaming at the top of their lungs, their voices were never heard,” Paul Seils, vice president of the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), wrote on Thursday in an article on the organization’s website. Seils is a criminal defense lawyer who spent nearly five years in Guatemala designing and directing investigations on behalf of massacre victims.

“The last few decades have seen a revolution in the global struggle against impunity, but even for those of us who follow the pursuit of justice in Guatemala closely, Thursday’s decision ranks among the most astonishing developments,” wrote Seils of the decision to prosecute Montt.

The now 85-year-old former general had previously been immune from prosecution after he was elected to Congress in 2007. Last month he lost his immunity and was immediately subpoenaed.

Guatemala’s civil war against leftist rebels ended in 1996, but resulted in a large number of deaths among indigenous peoples who had nothing to do with the conflict. At least 200,000 Guatemalans were slain in the three decades-long conflict, with the majority killed by the army or paramilitary groups, according to the United Nations.

When prompted to respond to the allegations, Montt, who has previously denied the genocide charges against him, said that he “heard and understood the prosecution’s charges, but (preferred) to remain silent,” reported Inter Press Service.

As Kelsey Alford-Jones, director of Guatemala Human Rights Commission, points out in an article for legal news site the Jurist, Montt was chief of the military and maintained a strict chain of command, and was always informed about what happened in the country. Prosecutors should go through with the proceedings to bring justice to those victims of genocide, despite political hurdles in the country.

Guatemala’s government in 2004 admitted in front of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights that Montt’s regime was involved in committing acts of genocide.