Ríos Montt

December 28, 2014
Jo-Marie Burt

Under pressure from entrenched economic and military interests, Guatemala's Constitutional Court undid its historic genocide ruling in 2013. The trial is set to resume on January 5, but faces last-ditch efforts to derail it.

July 28, 2013
In its treatments of Guatemalan and Honduran violence and instability, NPR's This American Life edited out essential lines of inquiry and concealed the countries' relevance for U.S. listeners: It is as if Washington’s continuous support of the Central American countries' brutal security forces had never happened.
June 17, 2013
Jo-Marie Burt

On May 10, 2013, before a packed courtroom, a Guatemalan court declared that it had found former de-facto president General José Efraín Ríos Montt guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity. Just 10 days after this historic ruling, Guatemala’s Constitutional Court vacated the verdict against Ríos Montt and ordered a partial retrial of the legal proceedings from April 19 forward.

February 21, 2013
While it is too early to tell whether or not Jean Claude Duvalier will appear in court today to face charges for embezzlement and corruption, it is important, whatever the outcome, to highlight that Guatemala’s arduous 14-year struggle to prosecute former military dictator Efrain Rios Montt for crimes against humanity provides an important template for Haiti moving forward.
March 23, 2012
Michael Fox

Thirty years ago, today, on March 23, 1982, Guatemalan general Efraín Ríos Montt overthrew President Romeo Lucas García. The new military junta suspended the Constitution, closed the legislature, and installed one of the bloodiest military regimes in Guatemalan history. Three decades later, for the first issue of our 45th anniversary volume, we look to the legacies of war in Central America.

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