Ex-Guatemalan dictator Rios Montt dies, leaves bitter legacy

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Ex-Guatemalan dictator Rios Montt dies, leaves bitter legacy

By Sofia Menchu

 

FILE PHOTO: Guatemalan retired Gen. Efrain Rios Montt answers questions during an interview with Reuters at his Guatemala City office, July 2, 2002. REUTERS/Jorge Silva/File Photo

 

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Former Guatemalan military dictator Efrain Rios Montt died at the age of 91 on Sunday, a bitterly divisive figure in the country's long civil war who escaped a 2013 genocide conviction only to face renewed charges last year.

 

At the time of his death, which his lawyer Luis Rosales announced, Rios Montt was again on trial for genocide for his role during one of the bloodiest phases of the Cold War-era conflict that lasted from 1960 until 1996.

 

"He died facing justice," said on Twitter Claudia Paz y Paz, a former Guatemalan attorney general who was instrumental in bringing charges against members of the military accused of committing atrocities during the civil war.

 

"Thank you to the survivors for their dignity and bravery. May it never happen again," Paz y Paz added.

 

Ruling Guatemala from 1982 to 1983, Rios Montt was in 2013 convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity, to the relief of many victims' families. Then, barely a week later, judges at the country's top court threw out the sentence.

 

President Jimmy Morales, whose party has strong ties to the military, expressed his condolences to Rios Montt's family, while other leaders on the right also paid their respects.

 

Former conservative President Alfonso Portillo, a party colleague of Rios Montt's who was convicted of money laundering in 2014, said he had valued the retired general as a friend.

 

"I learnt a lot from him and his life is part of our history," he said, noting the two had also their differences.

 

An evangelical Protestant, Rios Montt served in Congress for nearly two decades and stepped down in 2012, putting an end to the immunity he enjoyed by law as a public official.

 

A Guatemalan court in January 2012 charged him for conceiving a counterinsurgency plan that killed at least 1,771 members of the Ixil tribe and displaced thousands more.

 

His lawyer Rosales said on Sunday that Rios Montt maintained he was innocent of genocide until the end.

 

An estimated 200,000, mostly Maya civilians were killed during the war, and a further 45,000 went missing.

 

Born on June 16, 1926 in Guatemala's rural western highland department of Huehuetenango, Rios Montt took part in the 1954 U.S. Central Intelligence Agency-backed military coup that ousted democratically elected President Jacobo Arbenz, who was seen by the United States as a communist sympathizer.

 

Rios Montt was a general by 1972 and two years later ran for the presidency. He lost and went to Spain, serving as military attache, then returned to Guatemala in 1977. In March 1982, he headed a junta which removed President Angel Guevara from power.

 

Rios Montt was diagnosed with senile dementia in 2015, and a new genocide trial overseen by a Supreme Court tribunal began against him in 2017. The process was ongoing when he died.

 

Hector Reyes, a lawyer for victims' families, said the genocide trial would continue because another general, Jose Rodriguez Sanchez, was still facing charges. Rios Montt's death meant that he was no longer part of the process, he added.

 

Rigoberta Menchu, a Guatemalan activist and Nobel peace laureate who fought for victims of the conflict, said the death of the general would now give some a measure of closure.

 

"Either way, for us, the victims, he has already been judged, and the crimes have been set out," she said.

 

(Reporting by Sofia Menchu; Editing by Dave Graham and Richard Chang)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-04-02

[Songlaw]

He may have escaped the consequences of his actions here, but it is unlikely that he will weather the judgment to come, quite so well. 

[Stargeezr]

The guy died of old age, which it sounds like he did not deserve. I hope some other

despots, dictators and such do not get the luxery.

Geezer

[Songlaw]

5 minutes ago, Stargrazer9889 said:

The guy died of old age, which it sounds like he did not deserve. I hope some other

despots, dictators and such do not get the luxery.

Geezer

I was involved in this mess back in the late 70’s and early 80’s where I listened to many first-hand accounts that indicated everything said of Montt was true. He and Samoza were, in essence, two heads of the same beast. 

[Scouse123]

3 hours ago, Songlaw said:

He may have escaped the consequences of his actions here, but it is unlikely that he will weather the judgment to come, quite so well. 

 

Do you think he will care when he's dead? The dead know nothing.

[Bluespunk]

The world just became a slightly better place. 

[Songlaw]

5 hours ago, Scouse123 said:

 

Do you think he will care when he's dead? The dead know nothing.

All you've demonstrated is that the living sometimes know less. The clock is ticking.