Court Watch
year due to the end of his term with the Guatema- lan Congress.
Rios Montt’s government came to power in 1982 through a military coup and ended in 1983 also by a military coup. His government stands in the broader context of the Guatemalan Civil War, which lasted from 1960 to 1996.
During the Guatemalan Civil War, there was con- stant conflict between the government and leftist groups, who organized themselves in guerrillas. To fight them, Rios Montt, also known as “The General”, ordered his troops to enter the jungle high-mountains of Guatemala, which were used as a refuge spot by the leftists, who received help from the Mayan population who inhabited the mountains. During the operations the troops mas- sacred several Mayan villages, particularly those from the Ixil Triangle, including woman and chil- dren.
10
In the beginning of the 1990s, the Military Gov- ernment of Guatemala and the Revolutionary National Unity of Guatemala (URNG), the most prominent rebel group at the time, signed a Peace Agreement, which was complemented by the Accord for Firm and Lasting Peace, in 1996. The peace process, which was backed by the United Nations, also provided for the establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission, which was named “The Commission for Historical Clarifica- tion”. The Commission operated from 1997 - 1999 and had the objective of investigate the human rights violations related to the Guatemalan Civil War, as well as foster tolerance and preserve the memories of the victims of the conflict.
In 1990, after hearing the testimony of thousands of survivors (the Commission conducted 7,200 interviews with approximately 11,000 persons); attending exhumations of clandestine graves; having interviewed former heads of state and members of the military of Guatemala; and ana- lyzed over thousands of pages of non-governmen- tal organization (NGO) reports, the Commission
issued its final report titled “Guatemala: Memory of Silence”.
The final report characterizes Rios Montt’s govern- ment as promoting a full militarization of the pub- lic administration together with the creation of a National Plan for Security and Development, the Military Campaign “Victoria 82”, which was aimed at the annihilation of the subversive groups, and the creation of Special Tribunals, which operated secretly. The report further notes that the cases of forced disappearances, arbitrary executions and torture arose significantly more during the period of 1978 - 1982, including, and, more intensively, during Rios Montt’s government than in any other time during the Civil War. Additionally, it was in this period that most Mayans and Ladinos were killed. In absolute numbers (that means, during the whole period of the Civil War), these two eth- nic groups were the ones who had the most ca- sualties: the Mayans accounted for 83 percent of the deaths. The total of people killed was more than 200,000. Another important finding of the Commission was that the State was responsible for 93 percent of the cases of violence and human rights violations, followed by the guerrillas with 3 percent. Finally, the Commission concluded that state agents committed acts of genocide against groups of Mayan people.
The charges of crimes against humanity and genocide against Rios Montt are based on 72 in- cidents of violence and human rights violations, which caused the death of 1771 Guatemalans, be- sides the 1485 acts of sexual violence and 29,000 internal displacements. The Prosecution argued that Rios Montt was aware of the mass killings going on at the time and that he had full command over his troops. The Prosecution made a presenta- tion of nearly three hours in which they described mass killing, rape and torture of villages in the mountains of Guatemala. They further presented military documents, which called for the “extermi- nation of subversive elements”. Rios Montt was on the distribution list of these documents. One
ILSA Quarterly » volume 20 » issue 4 » May 2012
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