Genocide in Guatemala

By J. B. Gerald

Stating “The principle function of the state and its officials is to protect its citizens” (NYTimes), Judge Miguel Angel Gálvez ordered the trial of Efraín Rios Montt, former dictator of Guatemala and his intelligence chief José Mauricio Rodríguez Sánchez, for genocide.

Among other war crimes Rios Montt is allegedly responsible for the murder of 1771 Ixil Indians between 1982-3 (his term in office), in a war against domestic resistance which killed 200,000 predominantly aboriginal peoples. The U.S. sided with and supported his government. Israel supplied the military with arms and training. Rios Montt escaped prosecution for many years as a parliamentarian through immunity, the power of the military, and an ambivalent justice system.

He was previously charged with genocide by Judge Santiago Pedraz of the Spanish National Court on July 7, 2006 but released when Guatemala proved reluctant to proceed. His background includes training at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC)/ the School of the Americas and ordination in the California based Pentecostal Church of the Word (El Verbo). The military’s attempt to murder large portions of Guatemala’s Mayan Indian population is currently reflected in the murder of labour leaders, human rights workers, and community leaders facing foreign mining interests. Canadian mining companies have operated in Guatemala since the CIA takeover of the Arbenz government in 1954.

Rios Montt is the first former head of state in North, South or Central America to actually be tried for the crime of genocide. As noted on these pages July 7, 2012,, Jorge Rafael Videla, President of Argentina (1976 – 1981), was found guilty simply of stealing the children of the dissidents he occasioned to be murdered and was sentenced to fifty years in prison.

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http://www.globalresearch.ca/genocide-in-guatemala/5321576