Guatemalan Genocide

Judge Yassmín Barrios has presided over some of the most important cases in Guatemala, including the historic genocide trial against Efraín Ríos Montt. What would be the impact of a new amnesty law for the country's judiciary?

In the wake of the appointment of war criminal Elliott Abrams as Trump's special envoy to Venezuela, a group of concerned activists is protesting his contradictory affiliation with DC's Holocaust Museum.

Thirty years after NACLA first reported on Efraín Ríos Montt's genocide in Guatemala, its revelations stand the test of time. From our 50th anniversary issue, available open access for a limited time.

Former Guatemalan Dictator José Efraín Ríos Montt died on April 1. Five Guatemala experts weigh in on his life and the legacy of ethnic cleansing he leaves behind. 

Part of a roundtable reflecting on the death and legacy of dictator Ríos Montt. Read the rest here.

Part of a roundtable reflecting on the death and legacy of dictator Ríos Montt. Read the rest here.

Part of a roundtable reflecting on the death and legacy of dictator Ríos Montt. Read the rest here.  

Skylight Pictures' 'Dictator in the Dock' throws open the trial doors to the world.

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.

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.

Last February, some 18,000 Guatemalans, mostly survivors or relatives of victims of the state-sponsored terror of the 1970s and 1980s, gathered in Guatemala City's Plaza of the Constitution to commemorate the "Day of Dignity for the Victims of the Internal Armed Conflict." There, they heard President Álvaro Colom publicly accept the findings of the UN report that documented the terror. This, together with Colom's official apology on behalf of the Guatemalan government and armed forces, were framed by the image of an angel with wings formed of the shoulder blades of victims of the violence. The angel has now become an iconic image of the struggle for human rights in Guatemala and internationally.

Editor's Note: The international human rights case charging eight Guatemalan former military and police officials with genocide, state terrorism, torture and other crimes began February 4 in Madrid. Kate Doyle, a senior analyst at the National Security Archive and director of their Guatemala Project, attended the closed hearings as part of the investigative and legal team working on the Guatemalan Genocide Case. This is the first installment of her five-part series on the opening days of the case, in which witnesses gave harrowing testimony on a period known in Guatemala as the "Silent Holocaust."