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Eugene

(61,881 posts)
Fri May 10, 2013, 07:06 PM May 2013

Guatemala's Rios Montt found guilty of genocide

Source: BBC

10 May 2013 Last updated at 23:05 GMT

A court in Guatemala has found former military leader Efrain Rios Montt guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity.

Judges in Guatemala City sentenced the 86-year-old to 80 years in prison.

Rios Montt was convicted of ordering the deaths of 1,771 people of the Ixil Maya ethnic group during his time in office in 1982 and 1983.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-22490408

26 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Guatemala's Rios Montt found guilty of genocide (Original Post) Eugene May 2013 OP
Justice. (nt) enough May 2013 #1
Never thought I'd see the day. Jesse Helms favorite dictator. byeya May 2013 #2
And, for a while, Pat Robertson's. Nt thucythucy May 2013 #14
Thank God! Thanks to Guatemala's justice system. SharonAnn May 2013 #3
Here is a quote. timdog44 May 2013 #4
I guessed, then went to Google to confirm. I was right. 2ndAmForComputers May 2013 #10
Good job. timdog44 May 2013 #11
Excellent News, Sir The Magistrate May 2013 #5
I was concerned when they changed judges and eliminated all prior testimony that the fix was in MNBrewer May 2013 #6
The Fix Might Still Be In pmorlan1 May 2013 #20
great news, indeed yonder May 2013 #7
Hope this is a message lsewpershad May 2013 #8
I remember Pat Robertson way back in 1982 praising the coup that put Montt into power as a divine Douglas Carpenter May 2013 #9
Way overdue but at least justice is served at last. Big K&R riderinthestorm May 2013 #12
Reagan called him a man of "great personal integrity." Hissyspit May 2013 #13
Good nadinbrzezinski May 2013 #15
It's a pity sulphurdunn May 2013 #16
k&r n/t RainDog May 2013 #17
Could there be better news? A US-supported genocidal monster loses. Judi Lynn May 2013 #18
After all the shit this guy pulled....I hope they throw the whole damn book at him. AverageJoe90 May 2013 #19
Reagan said great things about him. /nt Ash_F May 2013 #21
Justice, sweet Justice. sorry its so late in his life and so many suffered. Sunlei May 2013 #22
This is great news! Now try his American patrons as accomplices Alamuti Lotus May 2013 #23
Guatemala: Rios Montt Convicted of Genocide grahamhgreen May 2013 #24
Guatemala’s Ríos Montt Genocide Conviction Omen for US Presidents and Their Assassins Judi Lynn May 2013 #25
The Genocidal General's daughter married a US Congressman, Jerry Weller (R) IL mikekohr May 2013 #26

timdog44

(1,388 posts)
4. Here is a quote.
Fri May 10, 2013, 07:21 PM
May 2013

"President Ríos Montt is a man of great personal integrity and commitment. ... I know he wants to improve the quality of life for all Guatemalans and to promote social justice."1

Guess who said this?

timdog44

(1,388 posts)
11. Good job.
Fri May 10, 2013, 07:49 PM
May 2013

Now my next question is - why do Latin American people hate the USA? But you already know that.

The same reason we are hated around the world.

MNBrewer

(8,462 posts)
6. I was concerned when they changed judges and eliminated all prior testimony that the fix was in
Fri May 10, 2013, 07:28 PM
May 2013

in favor of Rios Montt. Good to see that it wasn't.

Douglas Carpenter

(20,226 posts)
9. I remember Pat Robertson way back in 1982 praising the coup that put Montt into power as a divine
Fri May 10, 2013, 07:34 PM
May 2013

intervention. They were absolutely rapturous about a real born again and "Spirit-filled" Christian taking power in Latin America.

 

riderinthestorm

(23,272 posts)
12. Way overdue but at least justice is served at last. Big K&R
Fri May 10, 2013, 07:57 PM
May 2013

I went to a spanish immersion school in Quetzeltenango Guatemala (ICA) just two years after the end of the civil war. Rios Montt's crimes were known by everyone I spoke with, even as he was the president.

The calls for justice were LOUD back then. I'm so glad they never stopped demanding he face the courts.

 

sulphurdunn

(6,891 posts)
16. It's a pity
Fri May 10, 2013, 09:19 PM
May 2013

that his co-conspirator, the Gipper, has eluded earthly justice. One may only hope that it has found him elsewhere.

Judi Lynn

(160,527 posts)
18. Could there be better news? A US-supported genocidal monster loses.
Sat May 11, 2013, 03:33 AM
May 2013

For any DU'er craving to know more about this incredible accomplishment, bringing a true monster to justice in a deadly still-racist country, please take a look at the running notes taken of the trial throughout the day, posted here by Catherina since around 9:00 a.m. Friday in the Latin America forum.

You will be stunned to see how intense this last day of trial actually was:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1108&pid=16623

 

AverageJoe90

(10,745 posts)
19. After all the shit this guy pulled....I hope they throw the whole damn book at him.
Sat May 11, 2013, 04:50 AM
May 2013

And when they're done, they oughta literally throw away the keys after they lock him up.

 

Alamuti Lotus

(3,093 posts)
23. This is great news! Now try his American patrons as accomplices
Sat May 11, 2013, 11:11 PM
May 2013

Well, maybe not--I think that court would find itself coming out second best in a fight with an armed drone.

Judi Lynn

(160,527 posts)
25. Guatemala’s Ríos Montt Genocide Conviction Omen for US Presidents and Their Assassins
Sat May 18, 2013, 12:55 PM
May 2013

Guatemala’s Ríos Montt Genocide Conviction Omen for US Presidents and Their Assassins
by Jay Janson / May 18th, 2013


José Efraín Ríos Montt began the his political and military career as a young officer taking part in the bloody successful CIA-organized coup against the first democratically elected president in Guatemalan history that was ordered by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1954. Two years earlier he had attended what peace activists call, the ‘US School for Assassins,’ namely, the long infamous School of the Americas. He ended his career a few days ago, convicted of genocide by the Guatemalan court he once controlled as president and dictator.

~snip~
Once the US is no longer overwhelmingly powerful, and American elitists no longer enjoy immunity, their crimes against humanity will be prosecuted as was the genocide committed by Ríos Montt, a loutish butcher employed by who and what everyone knows. Everyone! If one of Al Capone’s triggermen was on trial for murder, who was more importantly guilty, the triggerman, who was only one of the Mafia Don’s many triggermen convicted, or Mafia don Al Capone himself?

Eventually, if not sooner, given the fact that there is no time limitation on prosecution of genocide, and the coming inevitable restitution of logic and law in public affairs, one can expect prosecution of Americans, and not just Americans in high office serving that “financial element in the circles of power that has owned the government since the days of Andrew Jackson” as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt quipped to his friend Colonel House in 1932. (One might also like to recall that at the time FDR, in confidence, noted his secondary importance to that “financial element,” a tightly inclusive group of his of his friends and acquaintances and captains of industry and banking were, as a block, investing in the cheap labor of a financially prostate Nazi Germany and building its Wehrmacht up to number one military force in the world in full knowledge of Hitler’s plan for the Soviet Union and European Jews.)

If one confines oneself to researching the well published documentation of crimes against humanity during the administrations of the presidents that followed Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the last American president, who, as an aristocrat, had some influence among his wealthy peers, it becomes very clear why eminent historian Prof. Noam Chomsky of M.I.T. can say, without provoking much negative outcry, “If the Nuremberg laws were applied, then every post-war American president would have been hanged.” Prof. Chomsky followed this statement with listing the crimes against humanity of each of these presidents he had stated would be condemned by Nuremberg Law to the gallows, and has since occasionally updated the list to include subsequent new US presidents. A hard rain is going to fall in America one day.

More:
http://dissidentvoice.org/2013/05/guatemalas-rios-montt-genocide-conviction-omen-for-us-presidents-and-their-assassins/

mikekohr

(2,312 posts)
26. The Genocidal General's daughter married a US Congressman, Jerry Weller (R) IL
Mon May 20, 2013, 01:32 AM
May 2013

Let us not forget that my former congressman, Jerry Weller, (R) IL, married the daughter of General Montt.

Scary Jerry choose not to run for an 8th term after being voted one of the top 10 most corrupt congressmen in Washington DC.

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