The decision of a judge in Guatemala City to send former military dictator Efraín Ríos Montt to trial on charges of genocide and war crimes is a watershed moment in the country’s complex journey towards a genuine respect for the rule of law.
It speaks volumes about the resolve of victims, survivors, and their lawyers who for decades have struggled for justice in the face of improbable odds, and it is a testament to a new-found impartiality and courage among Guatemalan prosecutors and judges.
At the same time, the decision marks the beginning of a new phase that will likely be characterized by threats, smears and intimidations for all those intent on shedding light on atrocities committed during Guatemala’s civil war (1960-1996).
While the extremes of intimidation have mercifully receded in recent years, in previous trials dealing with the country’s repressive past, witnesses have been killed and prosecutors and judges forced into exile. Guatemala remains a country where justice is the pursuit of the brave and tactics of delay remain the refuge of impunity.
Ríos Montt’s role in the country’s recent history is complex, and his trial raises the stakes in the fight for the truth in Guatemala.
The process of getting Ríos Montt to trial has been long and painful, as his alleged crimes were committed some thirty years ago.
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After coming to power in a coup in March 1982, he continued much of the same military strategy of the preceding regime, based significantly on massacring indigenous Mayan civilians in rural villages, displacing them from their ancestral homelands, and trying to destroy the Mayan culture through prohibition of language and dress. |
From 1981-1983 it is estimated that well over 100,000 people were killed, either in massacres or as a result of displacement. In urban centers, he continued the practice of enforced disappearance of political leaders who opposed the military and the economic interests they served. It is by far the bloodiest period of recent history of any country in Latin America. Throughout this time, he was strongly supported by the Reagan administration, which presented Ríos Montt as a God-fearing man committed to a zealous fight against the forces of communism.
After the civil war ended in 1996, Ríos Montt remained a massively influential political power in the country, as the leader of the right-wing Guatemalan Republican Front party. This power goes some way to explaining long delays in advancing the cause of justice, but there are plenty of other interests in Guatemala’s labyrinths of power that continue to deny the racism that plagues the country, that found its ultimate expression in the alleged genocide.
At the same time, the intertwined interests of the country’s economic elites and the military, especially those massively enriched as a result of the war, have been inextricably linked since even before the time of Ríos Montt’s coup. They continue to dominate access to riches from the illegal drug and contraband trade that has financed lavish lifestyles of a small elite for generations.
Economic elites and the military have never accepted the findings of the UN-sponsored truth commission, that there was a policy of enforced disappearances, massacres, forced displacement, and that indeed genocide was committed.
As a result, the dominant narrative became that while there were some excesses, there was never any concerted plan to commit the massive atrocities alleged to have taken place; that there was no underlying racist element in the military strategy; and that this was all the work of disaffected Marxist Leninists, bitter at their military defeat. This denial speaks eloquently of who the racist elements in the country continue to believe Guatemala is for.
The near collapse of the state in the face of drug mafias and corruption are not disconnected from the interests that gave rise to the atrocities of the civil war. Guatemala’s power structures are not built of competing blocks of power – it was and remains run by a complex network of relationships, some legal, but many clearly corrupt and illegal. The atrocities of the past and corruption and drug infestations of today are not disconnected and the interests that lay behind the massacres are the same ones who benefit from the corruption of power and wealth today.
| The near collapse of the state in the face of drug mafias and corruption are not disconnected from the interests that gave rise to the atrocities of the civil war. Guatemala’s power structures are not built of competing blocks of power – it was and remains run by a complex network of relationships, some legal, but many clearly corrupt and illegal. The atrocities of the past and corruption and drug infestations of today are not disconnected and the interests that lay behind the massacres are the same ones who benefit from the corruption of power and wealth today. |
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In 1982 Ríos Montt made much of the fact that his army was a first-class machine, responding to orders and plans in a disciplined fashion and that he knew precisely what was going on. If that was so, then he will almost certainly be held responsible for genocide and war crimes as charged.
However, he deserves the full respect of the law, as does any citizen, and should be considered innocent until proven guilty. It is for a court to determine whether he knew about massacres and played a role in their planning or allowing them to occur. Everything will of course depend on the evidence presented. Or it should.
Institutions of justice in Guatemala remained deeply contaminated by political interference and vested interests, until recently. In July 2008 the Attorney General for Guatemala resigned under pressure arising from allegations of corruption. He was replaced by a career prosecutor, with no particular political connections, who began the process of taking allegations seriously and putting the wheels in motion to conduct proper investigations.
| In 2010 he was succeeded by Dr. Claudia Paz y Paz, a former judge with significant experience as a legal analyst and adviser linked to the human rights movement. Since her appointment, she not only led the prosecution authority in cases against former military regimes, but has also been the most successful prosecutor to deal with the drug mafias destabilizing the country. |
This genocide trial - the first genuine attempt anywhere to prosecute a former head of state in his own country on charges of genocide – has the potential to shatter a significant part of the wall of denial that surrounds Guatemala. For that to happen, the trial must be fair and free of intimidation. It must be allowed to happen without the threats or intimidation that has often blighted even the simplest quest for justice. There must be robust protection for witnesses, Paz y Paz, the prosecutor leading the investigation, and prosecution and the judges who will be on the frontline.
A fair trial of Ríos Montt would enhance the sense in victims and in society at large that institutions of justice are impartial and are there to protect the fundamental rights of all citizens, not just those of the elites and the powerful.
The decision to go to trial is another important opportunity for Guatemala to look itself in the mirror and answer the question of what kind of country it wants to be. It is a welcome step, but vigilance remains the watchword.
PHOTO: Former general Efraín Ríos Montt in one of the hearings of his trial for genocide and crimes against humanity, Guatemala City. Sandra Sebastián for Plaza Pública.
Learn more about ICTJ's work in Guatemala.
