From 1960 to 1996, Guatemala suffered a brutal internal armed conflict. According to the UN truth commission, “acts of genocide” were committed against the Mayan population in the highlands. That the country’s south coast was also the scene of intense repression is less known. This region is the scene of vast sugar cane plantations. Labourers, both indigenous and mestizo, worked and lived in dreadful conditions. This is why Belgian missionaries started pastoral work here, to make the labourers aware of the exploitation they experienced. Organisational processes among the labourers helped them to demand their rights. In February 1980, they organised a massive strike which lasted 15 days, to demand improved living conditions and wages.… Seguir leyendo »
As a society, we have agreed that some crimes are so horrific that they belong in a separate category. These are acts in which the perpetrators victimize not only their immediate target but all of us — which is why we label them “crimes against humanity.”
And that’s why the effort by hard-right politicians in Guatemala to free war criminals from prison is a matter that concerns everyone.
Not many outsiders realize that a genocide unfolded in Guatemala, less than a thousand miles from U.S. shores. The killing took place during the Cold War and after it, from 1960 until 1996, when the parties signed a peace accord and agreed to the National Reconciliation Law.… Seguir leyendo »
Guatemala is on the verge of a constitutional crisis. One of the things at stake is 30 years of work towards justice for crimes against humanity.
On January 7 President Jimmy Morales, elected in 2015 on an anti-corruption platform after the fall of his predecessor accused of genocide and corruption, decided unilaterally to close the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG). The Constitutional Court ruled this decision illegal and ordered reinstatement of this independent international organization set up in 2006 to assist the Guatemalan authorities in the fight against organized crime and corruption. But the Supreme Court responded by voting to remove at least one judge of the Constitutional Court.… Seguir leyendo »
A grainy cellphone image from a small indigenous Guatemalan village shows seven-year-old Jakelin Amei Rosmery Caal Maquin, wearing a blue blouse and jeans and looking diffidently into the camera with her arms hanging at her sides. Not long after the photo was taken, she accompanied her father on the over 2,000-mile journey to try and reach the US. She died while in US border patrol custody after arriving at a New Mexico port of entry to claim asylum.
Traveling with a father, like Jakelin was, accounted for the main reasons small children were regularly separated under Barack Obama (the other reason being the mass incarceration program Operation Streamline), though Donald Trump outmatched his predecessor in sheer scale if not in practice.… Seguir leyendo »
It has been only a year since a court convicted Gen. Efraín Ríos Montt, a former president of Guatemala, of genocide, a step hailed as a breakthrough for the country’s fragile democracy. And yet Guatemala’s hard-won progress is starting to falter; if nothing is done, it could easily slip back into authoritarianism, violence and disregard for basic human rights.
The trial of General Ríos Montt, who as the unelected president from 1982 to 1983 oversaw the murder of tens of thousands of Guatemalans, was the first time in history that a head of state anywhere was tried and convicted of genocide in a domestic courtroom.… Seguir leyendo »
The conviction of Guatemala’s former de facto president, Gen. Efrain Rios Montt, is the most significant human rights event in the recent history of that country.
By many accounts, Rios Montt is responsible for the worst human rights abuses committed by the military in Latin America. His punishment will forever change the political panorama in Guatemala.
Rios Montt’s trial and conviction to 80 years in prison for genocide and crimes against humanity was only possible now because, as a congressman, he had enjoyed immunity from prosecution for 12 years. He was the head of a military regime (1982-1983) that carried out the worst atrocities of Guatemala’s 36-year civil war that ended with a peace treaty in 1996.… Seguir leyendo »
The conviction last Friday of the former Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity is of monumental significance. It was the first time in history that a former head of state was indicted by a national tribunal on charges of genocide. It offers hopes to those similarly seeking justice in El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua.
But it’s too soon to declare victory in Guatemala. There is serious evidence that the current president, the former military commander Otto Pérez Molina, who took office in January 2012, may have been involved in the same mass killings for which General Ríos Montt has now been convicted.… Seguir leyendo »
“Hubo desmanes, pero yo no estuve enterado”, (General Efraín Ríos Montt, máximo responsable guatemalteco del genocidio maya en 1982-1983)
Finalmente ocurre lo que durante décadas pareció imposible en un país como Guatemala. Uno de los máximos criminales latinoamericanos —el general Efraín Ríos Montt, cuyas sanguinarias actuaciones le valieron el apelativo de Ríos de Sangre Montt— se sienta finalmente ante sus jueces, aunque todavía goza del escandaloso privilegio del arresto domiciliario. Y aunque todavía las presiones y las amenazas forman parte del precio a pagar por el intento de hacer justicia en aquella sociedad, una de las más desiguales, injustas y desgarradas de América.… Seguir leyendo »
For over a week Guatemala has been consumed with the court proceedings against Gen. Efraín Ríos Montt, who led the country in the early 1980s, on charges of genocide. But he isn’t the only one on trial.
I have spent the past 15 years researching and writing about postwar justice in Guatemala. I am encouraged that, a decade and a half after peace accords ended 36 years of civil war, Guatemala is being given a chance to show the world how much progress it has made in building democracy. The trial gives the Guatemalan state a chance to prove that it can uphold the rule of law and grant its indigenous Mayan people, who suffered greatly under Mr.… Seguir leyendo »
When a judge ruled to admit all the prosecution documents and expert witnesses in the genocide trial here of Gen. Efraín Ríos Montt last week — ensuring that Guatemala will be the first country in history to try one of its own heads of state for the most egregious crime against humanity — no triumphal smiles crossed the faces of courtroom observers. Some had been working toward this moment for years: two elderly women who between them lost a brother and a son among the 200,000 dead and disappeared over 36 years of guerrilla warfare and military dictatorship; indigenous Maya survivors from the highlands, where the army by its own account erased entire villages; those who spent their young adulthood in exile, then returned before it was safe to do so, throwing themselves into the tedious labor of collecting the evidence now being used against the general.… Seguir leyendo »
The impossible has happened in Guatemala. The onetime dictator, Gen. Efraín Ríos Montt, is going on trial for crimes of genocide committed during a civil war in which the army massacred more than 200,000 civilians. This is a landmark event not only for Guatemala but also for the cause of justice worldwide.
As the first ever domestic trial of a head of state on charges of genocide, the case shows that international tribunals are not the only avenue for postwar justice. It is also a sign that, in the long term, building democracy does not have to come at the expense of accountability for war criminals.… Seguir leyendo »
Last Monday, a brave Guatemalan judge made history. In greenlighting a public trial for the former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt on charges of genocide, the judge, Miguel Ángel Gálvez, made his country the first in the Americas to prosecute a former head of state, in its own domestic courts, for the ultimate crime.
Mr. Ríos Montt, a former cold war general whom Ronald Reagan defended as having gotten a “bum rap,” will finally face his accusers — three decades after his alleged crimes, and a year after he was indicted.
Mr. Ríos Montt seized power by a coup in March 1982, taking charge of a counterinsurgency that was then two decades old.… Seguir leyendo »
En la sala del Tribunal de Alto Riesgo de la ciudad de Guatemala, bajo la presidencia de la juez Jazmín Barrios, la voz firme y serena de la juez vocal Patricia Bustamante sonó especialmente rotunda cuando leyó: "Quedó demostrado que los militares actuaron de forma planificada, con ensañamiento y perversidad".
La sentencia se refiere a los hechos producidos principalmente el 7 de diciembre de 1982, cuando una unidad de kaibiles -tropas especiales- entró en el poblado de Las Dos Erres, pequeña aldea maya del Petén, al norte del país. Un total de 201 campesinos, civiles desarmados, en su mayoría mujeres y niños, fueron allí asesinados.… Seguir leyendo »
El 11 de septiembre de 1990, cuando la prestigiosa antropóloga guatemalteca Myrna Mack salía de su trabajo en la sede de Avancso (Asociación para el Avance de las Ciencias Sociales), en el centro de la ciudad de Guatemala, fue repetidamente apuñalada en plena calle hasta morir. El autor, posteriormente identificado y capturado, resultó ser un suboficial del Ejército guatemalteco perteneciente a uno de los más mortíferos servicios militares de información. Servicio que también protagonizaría otros importantes crímenes, incluido el asesinato del obispo monseñor Juan Gerardi, ocho años después.
Myrna era autora de rigurosos trabajos de investigación sobre los sufrimientos y destrozos sociales padecidos por las comunidades mayas desplazadas, que se vieron obligadas a huir ante las atrocidades del genocidio (626 masacres registradas por el informe de la ONU) perpetradas por las tropas del Ejército en el curso de aquel trágico conflicto interior.… Seguir leyendo »
Si hubiera un Oscar para premiar las realidades que superan la ficción de las películas, Guatemala merecería uno por superar a Infiltrados, de Martin Scorsese. Las violentas escenas finales de Scorsese, en las que todos los policías mueren, hacen pensar si existía alguien bueno en la trama. Hablando de violencia y policías malos, Guatemala y El Salvador han tenido los regímenes más sanguinarios de América Latina. Tanto por número de víctimas, como por la arrogancia y crueldad de sus aristocracias. En Guatemala inventaron los escuadrones de la muerte, los militares libraron su guerra solos, la ganaron con un genocidio y, entre sus méritos por brutalidad, está el haber asaltado y quemado la Embajada de España en 1980, dejando 36 personas muertas.… Seguir leyendo »
In all your extensive coverage of the death of Augusto Pinochet, there was one crucial omission (Reports, December 11-13). No one pointed out any of the obvious parallels between the case of the ex-Chilean dictator and that of General Efraín Ríos Montt, former dictator of Guatemala (1982-83), who is today facing extradition to Spain for human rights abuses on a grand scale.The similarities between the legal issues presented by Pinochet and Ríos Montt are numerous. Both were military dictators who came to power in their respective Latin American countries as the result of a coup d'etat. Both were products of the cold war, enjoying US support in exchange for ruthlessly repressing any real or perceived threat of communism.… Seguir leyendo »
Por Prudencio García, investigador del INACS, ex miembro del equipo de expertos internacionales de la Comisión de Esclarecimiento Histórico de la ONU sobre Guatemala y autor de El genocidio de Guatemala a la luz de la sociología militar, 2005 (EL PAÍS, 11/11/05):
Una vez más, la justicia española -como ya lo hizo en 1998- se sitúa en cabeza en la larga lucha contra los delitos de lesa humanidad en el ámbito mundial, en su persecución de tales delitos por encima de fronteras y regímenes. La sentencia del Tribunal Constitucional del pasado 6 de octubre, que asume la capacidad jurisdiccional de la Justicia española respecto a los crímenes perpetrados en Guatemala por los gobiernos militares de aquel país en pasadas décadas, especialmente entre 1978 y 1986, reviste una extraordinaria importancia nacional e internacional.… Seguir leyendo »
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