Efraín Ríos Montt
Encyclopedia
José Efraín Ríos Montt is a former de facto
President
of Guatemala
, dictator
, army general
, and former president of Congress
. In the 2003 presidential elections, he unsuccessfully ran as the candidate of the ruling Guatemalan Republican Front
(FRG).
Huehuetenango
-born Ríos Montt remains one of the most controversial figures in Guatemala. Two Truth Commissions
, the REMHI report, sponsored by the Roman Catholic Church
, and the CEH report, conducted by the United Nations as part of the 1996 Accords of Firm and Durable Peace, documented widespread human rights
abuses committed by Ríos Montt's military regime, including widespread massacres, rape
, torture
, and acts of genocide
against the indigenous
population. Supporters claim that he had to rule with an iron hand because the country was becoming unstable due to the civil war. Ríos Montt has, at times, had close ties to the United States
who gave him aid to fight against left-wing guerrillas.
Ríos Montt is best known outside Guatemala for heading a military regime
(1982–1983) that was responsible in some of the worst atrocities of Guatemala's 36-year civil war
. The war ended with a peace treaty in 1996. The civil war pitted left-wing rebel
groups against the army
, with huge numbers of Mayan campesinos
caught in the crossfire. At least 200,000 Guatemalans were killed during the conflict, making it one of Latin America
's most violent wars in modern history.
Indigenous Mayans suffered greatly under his rule, and it is documented that his government deliberately targeted thousands of them since many of them in the countryside were suspected of harboring sympathies for the guerrilla movement. The UN-backed official Truth Commission (the Historical Clarification Commission
) found that this was a campaign of deliberate genocide
against the population.
against President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán
.
Following the coup, Ríos Montt rose swiftly through the military. In 1970, under the military regime of President General Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio
, he became a brigadier general and chief of staff for the Guatemalan army.
In 1973, Ríos Montt resigned from his post at the Washington embassy to participate in the March 1974 presidential elections
as the candidate of the National Opposition Front (FNO). He lost the election to a rival right-wing candidate, General Kjell Eugenio Laugerud García
, by 70,000 votes. Since Laugerud didn't get a majority, the election was thrown to the government-controlled National Congress, which promptly elected Laugerud. According to some accounts, Ríos Montt appeared to be on his way to a majority when the government abruptly halted the count and manipulated the results to make it appear Laugerud had won by a narrow plurality.
Ríos Montt denounced a "massive electoral fraud", blaming Catholic priests who had questioned the mistreatment of the Catholic Mayans, and claimed that the priests were leftist agents. It is alleged that he was given a payoff of several hundred thousand dollars along with the post of military attaché in the embassy in Madrid, Spain, where he stayed until 1977.
In 1978, he left the Roman Catholic Church
and became a minister in the California
-based evangelical
/pentecostal Church of the Word
; since then Jerry Falwell
and Pat Robertson
have been personal friends. Ríos Montt's brother Mario is a Catholic bishop, and in 1998 succeeded the assassinated Bishop Juan Gerardi
as head of the human rights
commission uncovering the truth of the disappearances associated with the military and his brother.
, the official party candidate, won the presidential election
, universally denounced as fraudulent by opposition parties. On March 23, with the support of fellow soldiers, General Horacio Egberto Maldonado Schaad and Colonel Francisco Luis Gordillo Martínez, Ríos Montt seized power in a coup d'état, that was quietly backed by the CIA, deposing General Romeo Lucas García
. They set up a military junta
with Ríos Montt at its head. The junta immediately suspended the constitution
, shut down the legislature, set up secret tribunals, and began a campaign against political dissidents that included kidnapping, torture, and extrajudicial assassinations. The coup was described as being of the Oficiales jóvenes ("young officers"), and prevented Guevara from being installed as president on July 1.
Because of repeated vote-rigging and the blatant corruption of the military establishment, the coup was initially welcomed. Initially, there was some expectation that the extremely poor human rights and security situation might improve under the new regime. Drawing on his Pentecostal beliefs, Ríos Montt invoked a modern apocalyptic
vision comparing the four riders of the Book of Revelation
to the four modern evils of hunger, misery, ignorance and subversion, as well as fighting corruption and what he described as the depredations of the rich. He said that the true Christian
had the Bible
in one hand and a machine gun in the other. On April 10, he launched the National Growth and Security Plan whose stated goals were to end the extermination and teach the populace about nationalism. They wanted to integrate the campesinos
and indigenous peoples
into the state, declaring that because of their illiteracy and "immaturity" they were particularly vulnerable to the seductions of "international communism."
campaign on the nation's Mayan
population, particularly in the departments of Quiché and Huehuetenango
, that, according to the 1999 United Nations
truth commission, resulted in the annihilation of nearly 600 villages. One example was the Plan de Sánchez massacre
in Rabinal
, Baja Verapaz
, in July 1982, which saw over 250 people killed. The administration established special military courts that had the power to impose death penalties against criminals and suspected guerrillas. Tens of thousands of peasant farmers fled over the border into southern Mexico
. Meanwhile, urban areas saw a period of relative calm. The June 1982 amnesty for political prisoners was replaced by a state of siege
that limited the activities of political parties and labor unions under the threat of death by firing squad.
In 1982, an Amnesty International
report estimated that over 10,000 indigenous Guatemalans and peasant farmers were killed from March to July of that year, and that 100,000 rural villagers were forced to flee their homes. According to more recent estimates, tens of thousands of non-combatants were killed by the regime's death squad
s in the subsequent eighteen months. At the height of the bloodshed under Ríos Montt, reports put the number of killings and disappearances at more than 3,000 per month. Based on the number of people killed per capita, Ríos Montt was probably the most violent dictator in Latin America
's recent history, more so than even other notorious dictators such as Chile
's Augusto Pinochet
, Argentina
's Jorge Rafael Videla
, and Bolivia
's Hugo Banzer
.
continued to support the general and his regime, paying a visit to Guatemala City
in December 1982. During a meeting with Ríos Montt on December 4, Reagan declared: "President Ríos Montt is a man of great personal integrity and commitment. ... I know he wants to improve the quality of life for all Guatemalans and to promote social justice."1
Reagan claimed Guatemala's human rights conditions were improving and overturned the arms embargo imposed on Guatemala by president Carter
in 1977, by agreeing, in January 1983, to sell millions of dollars worth of military hardware, including weapons and vehicles, to the country's government. The decision was taken in spite of records concerning human rights violations, by-passing the approval from Congress
. Meanwhile, a then-secret 1983 CIA cable noted a rise in "suspect right-wing violence" and an increasing number of bodies "appearing in ditches and gullies." In turn, Guatemala was eager to resurrect the Central American Defense Council
, defunct since 1969, to join forces with the right-wing governments of El Salvador
and Honduras
in retaliations against the leftist Sandinista government of Nicaragua
.
s").
Three coups had been attempted since he came to power. On June 29, 1983, he declared a state of emergency, and announced elections for July 1984. On August 8, his own Minister of Defense General Óscar Humberto Mejía Victores
overthrew the regime in a near-bloodless coup (seven people were killed). The unpopularity of Ríos Montt was widespread, exacerbated by his refusal to grant clemency to six guerrillas during the visit of Pope John Paul II
. The military was offended by his promotion of young officers in defiance of the Army's traditional hierarchy. Many citizens in the middle class
were alienated by his decision on August 1 to introduce the value-added tax, never before levied in Guatemala.
The killings continued even after Ríos Montt was eased from office in 1983,. It has been documented that as many as one and a half million Maya peasants were uprooted from their homes, and that many were forced to live in re-education concentration camps and to work in the fields of Guatemalan land barons. The Mayan
Indian and campesino population suffered greatly under Ríos Montt's government. Ríos Montt along with several other men who served high positions in the military governments of the early 1980s are defendants in several lawsuits alleging genocide and crimes against humanity; one of these cases was filed in 1999 by Nobel Peace Prize-winning K'iche'-Maya activist, Rigoberta Menchú
. In early 2008 the presiding judge, Santiago Pedraz, took testimony from a number of indigenous survivors. The genocide cases have seen little progress due to a climate of ongoing and entrenched impunity in Guatemala.
(FRG) political party in 1989. He tried to run for president in 1990, but was prohibited from entering the race by the constitutional court due to a constitutional provision banning people who had participated in military coups from becoming president. He was an FRG congressman between 1990 and 2004. In 1994, he was elected president of the unicameral
legislature. He tried to run again in 1995, and was also barred from the race. Alfonso Portillo was named to replace him as the FRG candidate, and narrowly lost. However, he won in 1999.
Guatemalan campaigners on behalf of Maya survivors of the civil war
, such as Nobel laureate and Mayan human rights advocate Rigoberta Menchú
, were amazed, in March 1999, when U.S. President Bill Clinton
apologized for U.S. support of Ríos Montt's regime. Clinton declared: "For the United States, it is important I state clearly that support for military forces and intelligence units which engaged in violence and widespread repression was wrong and the United States must not repeat that mistake." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/daily/march99/clinton11.htm
The same August President Portillo admitted involvement of the Guatemalan government in human rights abuses over the previous 20 years, including for two massacres that took place during Ríos Montt's presidency. The first was in Plan de Sánchez
, in Baja Verapaz
, with 268 dead, and in Dos Erres
in Petén
, where 200 people were murdered.
Later, however, the Supreme Court suspended his campaign for the presidency and agreed to hear a complaint brought by two right-of-center parties that the general was constitutionally barred from running for the presidency. Ríos Montt denounced the ruling as judicial manipulation and, in a radio address, called on his followers to take to the streets to protest against this decision. On July 24, in a day known as jueves negro
(black Thursday) thousands of masked FRG supporters invaded the streets of Guatemala City
armed with machetes, clubs and guns. They had been bussed in from all over the country by the FRG amidst claims that people working in FRG-controlled municipalities were being blackmail
ed with being sacked if they did not attend the demonstration. The demonstrators blocked traffic, chanted threatening slogans, and waved their machetes about.
They were led by well known FRG militants, including several known congressmen, who were photographed by the press early in the morning while co-ordinating the actions, and the personal secretary of Zury Ríos Montt
, the general's daughter. Indeed, a picture of a prominent FRG congressman adjusting his mask to talk on his cell phone was seen around the world. The demonstrators marched on the courts, the opposition parties headquarters, and newspapers, torching buildings, shooting out windows and burning cars and tires in the streets. A TV
journalist
, Héctor Fernando Ramírez
, died of a heart attack running away from a mob. After two days of wreaking havoc on the main streets of Guatemala City, rioters disbanded when an audio recording of Ríos Montt was played in loudspeakers calling them to return to their homes.
The situation was so chaotic over the weekend that both the UN
mission and the U.S. embassy were closed.
Following the rioting, the Constitutional Court, packed with allies of Ríos Montt and Portillo, overturned the Supreme Court decision. The legal reasoning behind the final decision was not immediately made public. Legal reasoning had nothing to do with it; the riots were effective in scaring everyone into silence. However, Ríos Montt had argued that the ban on coup leaders, formalized in the 1985 Constitution
, could not be applied retroactively to acts before that date. Many Guatemalans expressed anger over the Court's decision.
In the post-Cold War environment, U.S. support for Ríos Montt had subsided. In June 2003, the State Department publicly announced that it would prefer to deal with a less tarnished figure.
During tense but peaceful presidential elections held on November 9, 2003, Ríos Montt received just 11 percent of the votes, putting him a distant third behind businessman Óscar Berger
, head of the conservative Grand National Alliance
(GANA), and Álvaro Colom
of the National Unity of Hope
(UNE). As he was running for president, he could not also run to be a member of Congress at the same time, and thus ended his 14 years there.
In March 2004, a court order forbade Ríos Montt from leaving the country to see if he is eligible for trial on charges related to jueves negro and the death of Ramírez. On November 20, 2004, Ríos Montt had to ask permission to travel to his country home for the wedding of his daughter Zury Ríos Montt
, to U.S. Representative
Jerry Weller
(a Republican
from Illinois
). But Ríos Montt has not been charged with any crime and, on January 31, 2006, manslaughter charges for the death of Ramírez were dropped against Ríos Montt.
laureate Rigoberta Menchú
presented charges for torture, genocide, illegal detention and state-sponsored terrorism against Ríos Montt and four other retired Guatemalan generals, two of them ex-presidents. Three other civilians that were high government official between 1978 and 1982 were also indicted. The Center for Justice and Accountability
and Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos de España are co-counsel in the trial.
In September 2005 Spain's Constitutional Court
ruled that Spanish courts can try those accused of crimes against humanity even if the victims were not of Spanish origin.
In June 2006, Spanish judge Santiago Pedraz traveled to Guatemala to interrogate Ríos Montt and the others named in the case. However, at least 15 appeals filed by the defense attorneys of the indicted prevented Pedraz from carrying out the inquiries.
On July 7, Pedraz issued an international arrest warrant against Efraín Ríos Montt and former presidents Óscar Humberto Mejía Victores
and Romeo Lucas García (the latter of whom had died in May 2006 in Venezuela
). A warrant was also issued for the retired generals Benedicto Lucas García and Aníbal Guevara
. Former minister of the interior Donaldo Álvarez Ruiz, who remains at large, and ex-chiefs of police German Chupina Barahona and Pedro García Arredondo are also named on the international arrest warrants. For his part, Ríos Montt admitted in a July 2006 press conference that there were "excesses" committed by the army during his rule, but strenuously denied his culpability http://www.prensalibre.com/pl/2006/julio/13/146746.html.
On January 17, 2007, Ríos Montt announced that he would run for a seat in Congress in the election
to be held later in the year. As a member of Congress he would be immune from prosecution unless a court suspended him from office. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/17/america/LA-GEN-Guatemala-Former-Dictator.php He won his seat in the election, which was held on September 9, and will lead the FRG's 15-member congressional delegation in the new legislature. http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/03/america/guatemala.php?page=2
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...
President
President of Guatemala
The title of President of Guatemala has been the usual title of the leader of Guatemala since 1839, when that title was assumed by Mariano Rivera Paz...
of Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
, dictator
Dictator
A dictator is a ruler who assumes sole and absolute power but without hereditary ascension such as an absolute monarch. When other states call the head of state of a particular state a dictator, that state is called a dictatorship...
, army general
Military of Guatemala
The Military of Guatemala consists of National Army of Guatemala , the Guatemalan Navy and the Guatemalan Air Force ....
, and former president of Congress
Congress of Guatemala
The Congress of the Republic is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of Guatemala.It comprises 158 deputies, who are elected by direct universal suffrage to serve four-year terms . Twenty-nine of these are elected from nationwide lists, with the rest on a district list basis...
. In the 2003 presidential elections, he unsuccessfully ran as the candidate of the ruling Guatemalan Republican Front
Guatemalan Republican Front
The Guatemalan Republican Front is a right-wing political party in Guatemala.It was created in 1989 by former president and dictator Efraín Ríos Montt, and formally registered in 1990...
(FRG).
Huehuetenango
Huehuetenango
Huehuetenango is a city and a municipality in the highlands of western Guatemala. It is also the capital of the department of Huehuetenango. The municipality's population was over 81,000 people in 2002...
-born Ríos Montt remains one of the most controversial figures in Guatemala. Two Truth Commissions
Truth and Reconciliation Commission
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was a court-like restorative justice body assembled in South Africa after the abolition of apartheid. Witnesses who were identified as victims of gross human rights violations were invited to give statements about their experiences, and some were selected...
, the REMHI report, sponsored by the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
, and the CEH report, conducted by the United Nations as part of the 1996 Accords of Firm and Durable Peace, documented widespread human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
abuses committed by Ríos Montt's military regime, including widespread massacres, rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
, torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
, and acts of genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
against the indigenous
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
population. Supporters claim that he had to rule with an iron hand because the country was becoming unstable due to the civil war. Ríos Montt has, at times, had close ties to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
who gave him aid to fight against left-wing guerrillas.
Ríos Montt is best known outside Guatemala for heading a military regime
Military rule
Military rule may mean:* Militarism or militarist ideology - the ideology of government as best served when under military control* Military occupation, when a country or area is occupied after invasion.** List of military occupations...
(1982–1983) that was responsible in some of the worst atrocities of Guatemala's 36-year civil war
Guatemalan Civil War
The Guatemalan Civil War ran from 1960-1996. The thirty-six-year civil war began as a grassroots, popular response to the rightist and military usurpation of civil government , and the President's disrespect for the human and civil rights of the majority of the population...
. The war ended with a peace treaty in 1996. The civil war pitted left-wing rebel
Rebellion
Rebellion, uprising or insurrection, is a refusal of obedience or order. It may, therefore, be seen as encompassing a range of behaviors aimed at destroying or replacing an established authority such as a government or a head of state...
groups against the army
Military of Guatemala
The Military of Guatemala consists of National Army of Guatemala , the Guatemalan Navy and the Guatemalan Air Force ....
, with huge numbers of Mayan campesinos
Peasant
A peasant is an agricultural worker who generally tend to be poor and homeless-Etymology:The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district.- Position in society :Peasants typically...
caught in the crossfire. At least 200,000 Guatemalans were killed during the conflict, making it one of Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
's most violent wars in modern history.
Indigenous Mayans suffered greatly under his rule, and it is documented that his government deliberately targeted thousands of them since many of them in the countryside were suspected of harboring sympathies for the guerrilla movement. The UN-backed official Truth Commission (the Historical Clarification Commission
Historical Clarification Commission
The Historical Clarification Commission was Guatemala's truth and reconciliation commission.The creation of the CEH was ordered by the Oslo Accords of 1994 that sought to bring an end to the Central American nation's three-decade-long Civil War, during which an estimated 200,000 people lost their...
) found that this was a campaign of deliberate genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
against the population.
Background
He attended the School of the Americas in 1951. In 1954, the young officer played a minor role in the successful CIA-organized coupOperation PBSUCCESS
The 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état was a covert operation organized by the United States Central Intelligence Agency to overthrow Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán, the democratically-elected President of Guatemala....
against President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán
Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán
Colonel Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán was a Guatemalan military officer and politician who served as Defense Minister of Guatemala from 1944–1951, and as President of Guatemala from 1951 to 1954....
.
Following the coup, Ríos Montt rose swiftly through the military. In 1970, under the military regime of President General Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio
Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio
Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio was President of Guatemala from 1 July 1970 to 1 July 1974.Carlos Arana was born in Barberena, in the department of Santa Rosa....
, he became a brigadier general and chief of staff for the Guatemalan army.
In 1973, Ríos Montt resigned from his post at the Washington embassy to participate in the March 1974 presidential elections
Guatemalan general election, 1974
General elections were held in Guatemala on 3 March 1974. No candidate received more than 50% of the vote in the presidential election, resulting in Kjell Eugenio Laugerud García being elected president by Congress on 12 March. The Congressional elections were won by an alliance of the...
as the candidate of the National Opposition Front (FNO). He lost the election to a rival right-wing candidate, General Kjell Eugenio Laugerud García
Kjell Eugenio Laugerud García
Kjell Eugenio Laugerud García was President of Guatemala from 1 July 1974 to 1 July 1978. He was the son of a Norwegian father and Guatemalan mother....
, by 70,000 votes. Since Laugerud didn't get a majority, the election was thrown to the government-controlled National Congress, which promptly elected Laugerud. According to some accounts, Ríos Montt appeared to be on his way to a majority when the government abruptly halted the count and manipulated the results to make it appear Laugerud had won by a narrow plurality.
Ríos Montt denounced a "massive electoral fraud", blaming Catholic priests who had questioned the mistreatment of the Catholic Mayans, and claimed that the priests were leftist agents. It is alleged that he was given a payoff of several hundred thousand dollars along with the post of military attaché in the embassy in Madrid, Spain, where he stayed until 1977.
In 1978, he left the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
and became a minister in the California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
-based evangelical
Evangelism
Evangelism refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs. The term is often used in reference to Christianity....
/pentecostal Church of the Word
Church of the Word
The Church of the Word is an evangelical pentecostal Christian church. Its parent organisation is the Gospel Outreach church, which is based in California, United States....
; since then Jerry Falwell
Jerry Falwell
Jerry Lamon Falwell, Sr. was an evangelical fundamentalist Southern Baptist pastor, televangelist, and a conservative commentator from the United States. He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch in Lynchburg, Virginia...
and Pat Robertson
Pat Robertson
Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson is a media mogul, television evangelist, ex-Baptist minister and businessman who is politically aligned with the Christian Right in the United States....
have been personal friends. Ríos Montt's brother Mario is a Catholic bishop, and in 1998 succeeded the assassinated Bishop Juan Gerardi
Juan José Gerardi Conedera
Monsignor Juan José Gerardi Conedera was a Guatemalan Roman Catholic bishop and human rights defender who was beaten to death two days after releasing a report on victims of the Guatemalan Civil War.-Early life:...
as head of the human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
commission uncovering the truth of the disappearances associated with the military and his brother.
1982 coup
On March 7, 1982, General Ángel Aníbal GuevaraÁngel Aníbal Guevara
Ángel Aníbal Guevara Rodríguez is a Guatemalan soldier and politician. He was born in La Democracia, Escuintla in 1924.Having served as defense minister in the previous administration, Guevara was victorious in the 7 March 1982 presidential election to succeed outgoing President Romeo Lucas, who...
, the official party candidate, won the presidential election
Guatemalan presidential election, 1982
General elections were held in Guatemala on 7 March 1982. Ángel Aníbal Guevara, hand-picked successor of previous president Romeo Lucas García, was declared the winner of the presidential election and was scheduled to take office on 1 July...
, universally denounced as fraudulent by opposition parties. On March 23, with the support of fellow soldiers, General Horacio Egberto Maldonado Schaad and Colonel Francisco Luis Gordillo Martínez, Ríos Montt seized power in a coup d'état, that was quietly backed by the CIA, deposing General Romeo Lucas García
Fernando Romeo Lucas García
Fernando Romeo Lucas García was the 25th President of Guatemala from 1 July 1978 to 23 March 1982...
. They set up a military junta
Military junta
A junta or military junta is a government led by a committee of military leaders. The term derives from the Spanish language junta meaning committee, specifically a board of directors...
with Ríos Montt at its head. The junta immediately suspended the constitution
Constitution
A constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed. These rules together make up, i.e. constitute, what the entity is...
, shut down the legislature, set up secret tribunals, and began a campaign against political dissidents that included kidnapping, torture, and extrajudicial assassinations. The coup was described as being of the Oficiales jóvenes ("young officers"), and prevented Guevara from being installed as president on July 1.
Because of repeated vote-rigging and the blatant corruption of the military establishment, the coup was initially welcomed. Initially, there was some expectation that the extremely poor human rights and security situation might improve under the new regime. Drawing on his Pentecostal beliefs, Ríos Montt invoked a modern apocalyptic
Apocalypse
An Apocalypse is a disclosure of something hidden from the majority of mankind in an era dominated by falsehood and misconception, i.e. the veil to be lifted. The Apocalypse of John is the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament...
vision comparing the four riders of the Book of Revelation
Book of Revelation
The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
to the four modern evils of hunger, misery, ignorance and subversion, as well as fighting corruption and what he described as the depredations of the rich. He said that the true Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
had the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
in one hand and a machine gun in the other. On April 10, he launched the National Growth and Security Plan whose stated goals were to end the extermination and teach the populace about nationalism. They wanted to integrate the campesinos
Peasant
A peasant is an agricultural worker who generally tend to be poor and homeless-Etymology:The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district.- Position in society :Peasants typically...
and indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....
into the state, declaring that because of their illiteracy and "immaturity" they were particularly vulnerable to the seductions of "international communism."
'Frijoles y Fusiles'
On June 9, the other two members of the junta were forced to resign, leaving Ríos Montt as the sole leader, head of the armed forces, and minister of defense. Violence escalated in the countryside, with the massacres becoming much more generalized in a campaign known as frijoles y fusiles (beans and guns). This was an attempt by Ríos Montt to win over the large indigenous population to his version of the rule of the law, unleashing a scorched earthScorched earth
A scorched earth policy is a military strategy or operational method which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area...
campaign on the nation's Mayan
Maya peoples
The Maya people constitute a diverse range of the Native American people of southern Mexico and northern Central America. The overarching term "Maya" is a collective designation to include the peoples of the region who share some degree of cultural and linguistic heritage; however, the term...
population, particularly in the departments of Quiché and Huehuetenango
Huehuetenango
Huehuetenango is a city and a municipality in the highlands of western Guatemala. It is also the capital of the department of Huehuetenango. The municipality's population was over 81,000 people in 2002...
, that, according to the 1999 United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
truth commission, resulted in the annihilation of nearly 600 villages. One example was the Plan de Sánchez massacre
Plan de Sánchez massacre
The Plan de Sánchez massacre took place in the Guatemalan village of Plan de Sánchez, Baja Verapaz department, on 18 July 1982. Over 250 people were abused and murdered by members of the armed forces and their paramilitary allies.The killings took place during one of the most violent phases of...
in Rabinal
Rabinal
Rabinal is a small town located in the Guatemalan department of Baja Verapaz, at . It serves as the administrative seat for the surrounding municipality of the same name. The municipality covers 504 km² and, in 2004, had a population of around 36,000...
, Baja Verapaz
Baja Verapaz
Baja Verapaz is a department in Guatemala. The capital is Salamá.Baja Verapaz houses the Mario Dary Biotope Preserve, preserving the native flora and fauna of the region, especially the endangered national bird of Guatemala, the Resplendent Quetzal....
, in July 1982, which saw over 250 people killed. The administration established special military courts that had the power to impose death penalties against criminals and suspected guerrillas. Tens of thousands of peasant farmers fled over the border into southern Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. Meanwhile, urban areas saw a period of relative calm. The June 1982 amnesty for political prisoners was replaced by a state of siege
State of Siege
State of Siege is a 1972 French film directed by Costa Gavras starring Yves Montand and Renato Salvatori.-Summary:...
that limited the activities of political parties and labor unions under the threat of death by firing squad.
In 1982, an Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
report estimated that over 10,000 indigenous Guatemalans and peasant farmers were killed from March to July of that year, and that 100,000 rural villagers were forced to flee their homes. According to more recent estimates, tens of thousands of non-combatants were killed by the regime's death squad
Death squad
A death squad is an armed military, police, insurgent, or terrorist squad that conducts extrajudicial killings, assassinations, and forced disappearances of persons as part of a war, insurgency or terror campaign...
s in the subsequent eighteen months. At the height of the bloodshed under Ríos Montt, reports put the number of killings and disappearances at more than 3,000 per month. Based on the number of people killed per capita, Ríos Montt was probably the most violent dictator in Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
's recent history, more so than even other notorious dictators such as Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
's Augusto Pinochet
Augusto Pinochet
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, more commonly known as Augusto Pinochet , was a Chilean army general and dictator who assumed power in a coup d'état on 11 September 1973...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
's Jorge Rafael Videla
Jorge Rafael Videla
Jorge Rafael Videla Redondo is a former senior commander in the Argentine Army who was the de facto President of Argentina from 1976 to 1981. He came to power in a coup d'état that deposed Isabel Martínez de Perón...
, and Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
's Hugo Banzer
Hugo Banzer
Hugo Banzer Suárez was a politician, military general, dictator and President of Bolivia. He held the Bolivian presidency twice: from August 22, 1971 to July 21, 1978, as a dictator; and then again from August 6, 1997 to August 7, 2001, as constitutional President.-Military and ideological...
.
U.S. backing
Given Ríos Montt's staunch anticommunism and ties to the United States, the Reagan administrationRonald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
continued to support the general and his regime, paying a visit to Guatemala City
Guatemala City
Guatemala City , is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Guatemala and Central America...
in December 1982. During a meeting with Ríos Montt on December 4, Reagan declared: "President Ríos Montt is a man of great personal integrity and commitment. ... I know he wants to improve the quality of life for all Guatemalans and to promote social justice."1
Reagan claimed Guatemala's human rights conditions were improving and overturned the arms embargo imposed on Guatemala by president Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
in 1977, by agreeing, in January 1983, to sell millions of dollars worth of military hardware, including weapons and vehicles, to the country's government. The decision was taken in spite of records concerning human rights violations, by-passing the approval from Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
. Meanwhile, a then-secret 1983 CIA cable noted a rise in "suspect right-wing violence" and an increasing number of bodies "appearing in ditches and gullies." In turn, Guatemala was eager to resurrect the Central American Defense Council
Central American Defense Council
The Central American Defense Council was an alliance of Central American countries ....
, defunct since 1969, to join forces with the right-wing governments of El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
and Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
in retaliations against the leftist Sandinista government of Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
.
Coup removing Rios Montt from office
By the end of 1982, Ríos Montt, claiming that the war against the leftist guerrillas had been won, said that the government's work was one of "techo, trabajo, y tortillas" ("roofs, work, and tortillaTortilla
In Mexico and Central America, a tortilla is a type of thin, unleavened flat bread, made from finely ground maize...
s").
Three coups had been attempted since he came to power. On June 29, 1983, he declared a state of emergency, and announced elections for July 1984. On August 8, his own Minister of Defense General Óscar Humberto Mejía Victores
Óscar Humberto Mejía Victores
Óscar Humberto Mejía Victores was the 27th President of Guatemala from 8 August 1983 to 14 January 1986. A member of the military, he was President of Guatemala during a time of increased repression and death squad activity...
overthrew the regime in a near-bloodless coup (seven people were killed). The unpopularity of Ríos Montt was widespread, exacerbated by his refusal to grant clemency to six guerrillas during the visit of Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
. The military was offended by his promotion of young officers in defiance of the Army's traditional hierarchy. Many citizens in the middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
were alienated by his decision on August 1 to introduce the value-added tax, never before levied in Guatemala.
The killings continued even after Ríos Montt was eased from office in 1983,. It has been documented that as many as one and a half million Maya peasants were uprooted from their homes, and that many were forced to live in re-education concentration camps and to work in the fields of Guatemalan land barons. The Mayan
Maya peoples
The Maya people constitute a diverse range of the Native American people of southern Mexico and northern Central America. The overarching term "Maya" is a collective designation to include the peoples of the region who share some degree of cultural and linguistic heritage; however, the term...
Indian and campesino population suffered greatly under Ríos Montt's government. Ríos Montt along with several other men who served high positions in the military governments of the early 1980s are defendants in several lawsuits alleging genocide and crimes against humanity; one of these cases was filed in 1999 by Nobel Peace Prize-winning K'iche'-Maya activist, Rigoberta Menchú
Rigoberta Menchú
Rigoberta Menchú Tum is an indigenous Guatemalan, of the K'iche' ethnic group. Menchú has dedicated her life to publicizing the plight of Guatemala's indigenous peoples during and after the Guatemalan Civil War , and to promoting indigenous rights in the country...
. In early 2008 the presiding judge, Santiago Pedraz, took testimony from a number of indigenous survivors. The genocide cases have seen little progress due to a climate of ongoing and entrenched impunity in Guatemala.
Comeback
Ríos Montt founded the Guatemalan Republican FrontGuatemalan Republican Front
The Guatemalan Republican Front is a right-wing political party in Guatemala.It was created in 1989 by former president and dictator Efraín Ríos Montt, and formally registered in 1990...
(FRG) political party in 1989. He tried to run for president in 1990, but was prohibited from entering the race by the constitutional court due to a constitutional provision banning people who had participated in military coups from becoming president. He was an FRG congressman between 1990 and 2004. In 1994, he was elected president of the unicameral
Unicameralism
In government, unicameralism is the practice of having one legislative or parliamentary chamber. Thus, a unicameral parliament or unicameral legislature is a legislature which consists of one chamber or house...
legislature. He tried to run again in 1995, and was also barred from the race. Alfonso Portillo was named to replace him as the FRG candidate, and narrowly lost. However, he won in 1999.
Guatemalan campaigners on behalf of Maya survivors of the civil war
Guatemalan Civil War
The Guatemalan Civil War ran from 1960-1996. The thirty-six-year civil war began as a grassroots, popular response to the rightist and military usurpation of civil government , and the President's disrespect for the human and civil rights of the majority of the population...
, such as Nobel laureate and Mayan human rights advocate Rigoberta Menchú
Rigoberta Menchú
Rigoberta Menchú Tum is an indigenous Guatemalan, of the K'iche' ethnic group. Menchú has dedicated her life to publicizing the plight of Guatemala's indigenous peoples during and after the Guatemalan Civil War , and to promoting indigenous rights in the country...
, were amazed, in March 1999, when U.S. President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
apologized for U.S. support of Ríos Montt's regime. Clinton declared: "For the United States, it is important I state clearly that support for military forces and intelligence units which engaged in violence and widespread repression was wrong and the United States must not repeat that mistake." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/daily/march99/clinton11.htm
The same August President Portillo admitted involvement of the Guatemalan government in human rights abuses over the previous 20 years, including for two massacres that took place during Ríos Montt's presidency. The first was in Plan de Sánchez
Plan de Sánchez
Plan de Sánchez is a village in the municipality of Rabinal, Baja Verapaz department, Guatemala. On July 18, 1982, while General Efraín Ríos Montt was President of Guatemala, a massacre was committed there by government forces during which over 200 people were killed...
, in Baja Verapaz
Baja Verapaz
Baja Verapaz is a department in Guatemala. The capital is Salamá.Baja Verapaz houses the Mario Dary Biotope Preserve, preserving the native flora and fauna of the region, especially the endangered national bird of Guatemala, the Resplendent Quetzal....
, with 268 dead, and in Dos Erres
Dos Erres
The Dos Erres massacre of 6 December 1982 took place in Dos Erres, a small village in the municipality of La Libertad, in the northern Petén department of Guatemala...
in Petén
Petén (department)
Petén is a department of the nation of Guatemala. It is geographically the northernmost department of Guatemala, as well as the largest in size — at it accounts for about one third of Guatemala's area. The capital is Flores...
, where 200 people were murdered.
Presidential candidate 2003
The FRG nominated Ríos Montt, in May 2003, for the November presidential election, but his candidacy was initially, and once again, rejected by the electoral registry and by two lower courts. In July 2003, Guatemala's highest court, which had had several judges appointed from the FRG, overruled the lower courts and allowed Ríos Montt to run for president. Over the years, he'd claimed the ban on former dictators making a bid for the presidency had been written specifically to prevent him from standing.Later, however, the Supreme Court suspended his campaign for the presidency and agreed to hear a complaint brought by two right-of-center parties that the general was constitutionally barred from running for the presidency. Ríos Montt denounced the ruling as judicial manipulation and, in a radio address, called on his followers to take to the streets to protest against this decision. On July 24, in a day known as jueves negro
Jueves negro
Jueves negro refers to a violent series of political demonstrations that created havoc in Guatemala City on 24 July and 25 July 2003....
(black Thursday) thousands of masked FRG supporters invaded the streets of Guatemala City
Guatemala City
Guatemala City , is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Guatemala and Central America...
armed with machetes, clubs and guns. They had been bussed in from all over the country by the FRG amidst claims that people working in FRG-controlled municipalities were being blackmail
Blackmail
In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
ed with being sacked if they did not attend the demonstration. The demonstrators blocked traffic, chanted threatening slogans, and waved their machetes about.
They were led by well known FRG militants, including several known congressmen, who were photographed by the press early in the morning while co-ordinating the actions, and the personal secretary of Zury Ríos Montt
Zury Ríos Montt
−Zury Mayté Ríos Sosa de Weller is a Guatemalan politician, affiliated with the Guatemalan Republican Front political party. She is currently serving her fourth term in Congress, where she serves as Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee...
, the general's daughter. Indeed, a picture of a prominent FRG congressman adjusting his mask to talk on his cell phone was seen around the world. The demonstrators marched on the courts, the opposition parties headquarters, and newspapers, torching buildings, shooting out windows and burning cars and tires in the streets. A TV
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, Héctor Fernando Ramírez
Héctor Fernando Ramírez
Héctor Fernando Ramírez, better known as Reportero X died on July 24, 2003 of a heart attack in Guatemala City while being chased by a mob in what is referred to as jueves negro . He was 61 years old. He had started his career as a radio news reporter...
, died of a heart attack running away from a mob. After two days of wreaking havoc on the main streets of Guatemala City, rioters disbanded when an audio recording of Ríos Montt was played in loudspeakers calling them to return to their homes.
The situation was so chaotic over the weekend that both the UN
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
mission and the U.S. embassy were closed.
Following the rioting, the Constitutional Court, packed with allies of Ríos Montt and Portillo, overturned the Supreme Court decision. The legal reasoning behind the final decision was not immediately made public. Legal reasoning had nothing to do with it; the riots were effective in scaring everyone into silence. However, Ríos Montt had argued that the ban on coup leaders, formalized in the 1985 Constitution
Constitution of Guatemala
The Constitution of Guatemala is the supreme law of the Republic of Guatemala. It sets the bases for the organization of Guatemalan government and it outlines the three main branches of Guatemalan government: executive branch, legislative branch, and judicial branch.External References=*...
, could not be applied retroactively to acts before that date. Many Guatemalans expressed anger over the Court's decision.
In the post-Cold War environment, U.S. support for Ríos Montt had subsided. In June 2003, the State Department publicly announced that it would prefer to deal with a less tarnished figure.
During tense but peaceful presidential elections held on November 9, 2003, Ríos Montt received just 11 percent of the votes, putting him a distant third behind businessman Óscar Berger
Óscar Berger
Óscar José Rafael Berger Perdomo, born on 11 August 1946 in Guatemala City, is a former President of Guatemala.-Early years:Of Belgian descent, Berger was born to an upper class family with large sugar and coffee holdings...
, head of the conservative Grand National Alliance
Grand National Alliance
The Grand National Alliance is a right-wing political party in Guatemala. The acronym "GANA" also spells out the word gana, from the verb ganar, "to win".-Formation and 2003 election:...
(GANA), and Álvaro Colom
Álvaro Colom
Álvaro Colom Caballeros is the President of Guatemala for the 2008–2012 term and leader of the social-democratic National Unity of Hope .-Early years:...
of the National Unity of Hope
National Unity of Hope
The National Unity of Hope is a political party in Guatemala. It was founded in 2002 and defines itself as a social-democratic and social-Christian party....
(UNE). As he was running for president, he could not also run to be a member of Congress at the same time, and thus ended his 14 years there.
In March 2004, a court order forbade Ríos Montt from leaving the country to see if he is eligible for trial on charges related to jueves negro and the death of Ramírez. On November 20, 2004, Ríos Montt had to ask permission to travel to his country home for the wedding of his daughter Zury Ríos Montt
Zury Ríos Montt
−Zury Mayté Ríos Sosa de Weller is a Guatemalan politician, affiliated with the Guatemalan Republican Front political party. She is currently serving her fourth term in Congress, where she serves as Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee...
, to U.S. Representative
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
Jerry Weller
Jerry Weller
Gerald C. "Jerry" Weller is an American politician who was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing .- Early life:...
(a Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
from Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
). But Ríos Montt has not been charged with any crime and, on January 31, 2006, manslaughter charges for the death of Ramírez were dropped against Ríos Montt.
Attempts to try Ríos Montt in Spain for crimes against humanity
In 1999, Nobel Peace PrizeNobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
laureate Rigoberta Menchú
Rigoberta Menchú
Rigoberta Menchú Tum is an indigenous Guatemalan, of the K'iche' ethnic group. Menchú has dedicated her life to publicizing the plight of Guatemala's indigenous peoples during and after the Guatemalan Civil War , and to promoting indigenous rights in the country...
presented charges for torture, genocide, illegal detention and state-sponsored terrorism against Ríos Montt and four other retired Guatemalan generals, two of them ex-presidents. Three other civilians that were high government official between 1978 and 1982 were also indicted. The Center for Justice and Accountability
Center for Justice and Accountability
The Center for Justice and Accountability is a non-profit international human rights organization based in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1998, CJA represents survivors of torture and other grave human rights abuses in cases against individual rights violators before U.S. and Spanish courts...
and Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos de España are co-counsel in the trial.
In September 2005 Spain's Constitutional Court
Constitutional Court of Spain
thumb|300px|The [[Domenico Scarlatti]] Building located in [[Madrid]], seat of the Constitutional Court of Justice of Spain.The Constitutional Court of Spain is the highest judicial body with the power to determine the constitutionality of acts and statutes of the Spanish Government. It is...
ruled that Spanish courts can try those accused of crimes against humanity even if the victims were not of Spanish origin.
In June 2006, Spanish judge Santiago Pedraz traveled to Guatemala to interrogate Ríos Montt and the others named in the case. However, at least 15 appeals filed by the defense attorneys of the indicted prevented Pedraz from carrying out the inquiries.
On July 7, Pedraz issued an international arrest warrant against Efraín Ríos Montt and former presidents Óscar Humberto Mejía Victores
Óscar Humberto Mejía Victores
Óscar Humberto Mejía Victores was the 27th President of Guatemala from 8 August 1983 to 14 January 1986. A member of the military, he was President of Guatemala during a time of increased repression and death squad activity...
and Romeo Lucas García (the latter of whom had died in May 2006 in Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
). A warrant was also issued for the retired generals Benedicto Lucas García and Aníbal Guevara
Ángel Aníbal Guevara
Ángel Aníbal Guevara Rodríguez is a Guatemalan soldier and politician. He was born in La Democracia, Escuintla in 1924.Having served as defense minister in the previous administration, Guevara was victorious in the 7 March 1982 presidential election to succeed outgoing President Romeo Lucas, who...
. Former minister of the interior Donaldo Álvarez Ruiz, who remains at large, and ex-chiefs of police German Chupina Barahona and Pedro García Arredondo are also named on the international arrest warrants. For his part, Ríos Montt admitted in a July 2006 press conference that there were "excesses" committed by the army during his rule, but strenuously denied his culpability http://www.prensalibre.com/pl/2006/julio/13/146746.html.
On January 17, 2007, Ríos Montt announced that he would run for a seat in Congress in the election
Guatemalan general election, 2007
A general election was held in Guatemala in two rounds on 9 September and 4 November 2007. Voters went to the polls to elect a new President and Vice President of the Republic, 158 congressional deputies, and 332 mayors.-Results:...
to be held later in the year. As a member of Congress he would be immune from prosecution unless a court suspended him from office. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/17/america/LA-GEN-Guatemala-Former-Dictator.php He won his seat in the election, which was held on September 9, and will lead the FRG's 15-member congressional delegation in the new legislature. http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/03/america/guatemala.php?page=2
Further reading
- Carmack, Robert M. (ed.). Harvest of Violence: The Maya Indians and the Guatemalan Crisis (University of Oklahoma Press, 1988) ISBN 0806121327
- Cullather, Nick. (fwd. by Piero Gleijeses). Secret History: The CIA's Classified Account of its Operations in Guatemala, 1952-1954 (Stanford University Press, 1999). ISBN 0804733104
- Dosal, Paul J. Return of Guatemala's Refugees: Reweaving the Torn (Temple University Press, 1998) ISBN 1566396212
- Falla, Ricardo (trans. by Julia Howland). Massacres in the Jungle: Ixcán, Guatemala, 1975-1982 (Westview Press, Boulder, 1994) ISBN 0813386683
- Fried, Jonathan L., et al. Guatemala in Rebellion : Unfinished History (Grove Press, NY, 1983). ISBN 0394532406
- Gleijeses, Piero. Shattered Hope: The Guatemalan Revolution and the United States, 1944-1954 (Princeton University Press, 1991) ISBN 0691078173
- Goldston, James A. Shattered Hope: Guatemalan Workers and the Promise of Democracy (Westview Press, Boulder, 1989). ISBN 0813377676
- LaFeber, Walter. Inevitable Revolutions: The United States in Central America. (W.W. Norton & Company, NY, 1993). ISBN 0393017877
- Nairn, AllanAllan NairnAllan Nairn is an award-winning American investigative journalist who became well known when he was imprisoned by Indonesian military forces under United States-backed strongman Suharto while reporting in East Timor. His writings have focused on U.S...
. "CIA Death Squads". April 1995. (Originally published in The NationThe NationThe Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
magazine. Accessed 9 July 2007. - Perera, Victor. Unfinished Conquest: The Guatemalan Tragedy (University of California Press, 1993). ISBN 0520079655
- Sanford, Victoria . Buried Secrets: Truth and Human Rights in Guatemala (Palgrave Macmillan, NY, 2003) ISBN 1403960232
- Schlesinger, Stephen. Bitter Fruit : The Untold story of the American Coup in Guatemala (Doubleday, Garden City, NY, 1982). ISBN 0385148615
- Sczepanski David. Anfuso, Joseph. (fwd. by Pat Robertson). Efrain Rios Montt, Servant or Dictator? : The Real Story of Guatemala's Controversial Born-again President (Vision House, Ventura, CA, 1984) ISBN 0884491102
- Shillington, John Wesley. Grappling with Atrocity: Guatemalan Theater in the 1990s (Associated University Presses, London, 2002). ISBN 0838639305
- Stoll, David. Between Two Armies in the Ixil Towns of Guatemala (Columbia University Press, NY, 1993). ISBN 0231081820
- Streeter, S.M. Managing the Counterrevolution: The United States and Guatemala, 1954-1961 (Ohio Univ. Cent. Int. Stud., 2000) ISBN 0896802159