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February 1, 2013

Former Guatemalan Dictator Goes on Trial for Genocide 
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In Guatemala, a landmark trial has opened for a former dictator accused
of presiding over a series of massacres of indigenous people in the
early 1980s. Efraín Ríos Montt is the first head of state in the
Americas to stand trial for genocide. He is charged in connection with
the slaughter of more than 1,700 people in Guatemala’s Ixil region
during a scorched-earth campaign purportedly aimed at rooting out
guerillas. Rios Montt seized power in 1982 and his 17-month rule is seen
as one of the bloodiest chapters in Guatemala’s 36-year dirty war. At
the trial Thursday massacre survivor Francisco Chavez recalled the
killings.

Francisco Chavez: "All our families were massacred, executed without
reason. For this reason, we hope that justice is done. It doesn't matter
if it takes more days or how much time because our mission is that
injustice in Guatemala ends."

 

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