In Guatemala, Former Dictator Is Told to Appear in Court
In Guatemala, Former Dictator Is Told to Appear in Court
By ELISABETH MALKIN
Published: January 22, 2012
MEXICO CITY — A Guatemalan judge has ordered a former military dictator, Efraín Ríos Montt, to appear in court on Thursday, the first step in a process that could lead to his being tried on genocide charges and to a reopening of the darkest chapter in Guatemala’s brutal 36-year civil war.
During General Ríos Montt’s 17-month rule in 1982 and 1983, the Guatemalan Army pursued a scorched-earth campaign in the Mayan highlands that included massacres that are regarded as among the most horrific in the war. To flush out small bands of leftist guerrillas, soldiers entered Indian villages and hunted down their inhabitants, slaughtering men, women and children indiscriminately.
~snip~
A lawyer for him told the Guatemalan newspaper Prensa Libre that his client would appear to hear the prosecutor’s charges. “We are sure that there is no responsibility, since he was never on the battlefield,” said the lawyer, Gonzalo Rodríguez Gálvez.
In past interviews, Mr. Ríos Montt has said that he never ordered massacres. But military documents have shown that the military was operating under a rigid chain of command and that reports from the field went right up to top commanders.
More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/23/world/americas/efrain-rios-montt-guatemala-ex-dictator-to-appear-in-court.html?_r=1&ref=world