Rios Montt Verdict Day. Sanchez statements. Verdict at 4PM Central today

[Catherina]

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 30m

Jose Mauricio Rodriguez Sanchez takes the stand.

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 28m
José Mauricio Rodriguez Sanchez, head of intelligence under Montt, makes declaration at Genocide trial

- #JMRodriguezSanchez: The Pub Pros indicated I was linked for elaborating, supervising & executing Plans Victoria 82, Firmeza 83 & Sofia.

- #JMRodríguez: I have been imprisoned for 19 months & it hasn't been proven. I never did those plans.

= #JMRodríguez: I've had moral rectitude in my life.. you can ask everyone I know. I never supervised such a thing, against my principles.

- #JMRodríguez: The Public Prosecutor's own experts have said my position did not have command.

- #JMRodríguez in #GenocideGT closing statement: There's no document that says 'Mauricio Rodríguez sent people to kill so & so

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 21m

- #JMRodríguez “I was never in Ixil area during this time. I am innocent of all charges. I am innocent. I have no guilt.”

- #JMRodríguez closes: I'm not guilty of anything, I'm innocent. I ask for freedom.

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 21m

- #JMRodríguez: I've demonstrated that I've never designed a military camp, I've never been in the Ixil region, never.

- #JMRodríguez closes: I'm not guilty of anything, I'm innocent. I ask for freedom.

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 21m

- Debate closed!

- Barrios strikes gavel on table.

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 21m

- Judge Barrios just declared the #GenocideGT trial concluded, with a pound of her gavel.

- The #GenocideGT verdict in the trial against #RíosMontt & #JMRodriguez will be given at 4PM today.

- Many have chosen to hold their seats in Judge Barrios' courtroom, anticipating #GenocideGT verdict this afternoon.

Court adjourns for 5 hours. Verdict will be at 11pm (London) 3 pm (San Francisco) 4PM (Central/Guatemala) 6pm (Washington) 7PM (Brazil) time

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 8m

Judge Flores's hearing is yet to begin. Press & public continue to file into her courtroom, in a neighboring building.

Rios Montt Trial ?@RiosMonttTrial 9m

The OSJI trial monitoring team has gone to Tribunales to see what is happening at the hearing called by Judge Carol Patricia Flores.

[Catherina]

1. Now inside court of judge Flores who previously supported demand to shut down the trial

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 2m

Waiting for Judge Flores, inside Torre Tribunal. Ríos Montt, Rodriguez Sanchez, & attys present.

- Attorneys for Ríos Montt, Rodriguez Sanchez confer inside court of judge Flores; her court previously supported their demand to shut down the trial. We await clarification


- Police special forces inside court of judge Flores. We await her arrival. Defendants, Plaintiffs, attys, press here.

[Catherina]

2. Judge Flores is seated. Relates to complaints by Montt's defense attorneys

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 9s

- Judge Carol Patricia Flores is seated.

- No armed guards behind her this time.

- Courtroom A, Judge Carol Patricia Flores opens hearing. Relates to complaints by defense in Ríos Montt genocide trial

UK Guardian article

Guatemala judge suspends Rios Montt genocide trial

Judge Carol Flores sparks row after voiding all actions taken in former dictator's war crimes case since November 2011
Friday 19 April 2013

A judge in Guatemala has ordered the suspension of the genocide trial of the former US-backed dictator Efrain Rios Montt, angering prosecutors who vowed that proceedings would continue as planned.

Judge Carol Patricia Flores was recently reinstated to the case after being recused from it in February 2012. She ruled that all actions taken in the case since she was asked to step down were null, in effect sending the trial back to square one.

"I am not doing this because I want to, but because it has been ordered by the constitutional court and the supreme court," said Flores, while relatives of the victims wept and shouted that she was "a sold-out judge".

...

Flores made the announcement on Thursday after proceedings ended abruptly when Rios Montt's legal team stormed out of the court arguing that the trial was illegal.

In November 2011 his lawyers filed a complaint to remove Flores from the case, alleging that she was biased. In January 2012 she charged Rios Montt with genocide and war crimes. Another judge took over in February and the case went to a three-judge panel.

....


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/19/guatemala-judge-suspends-rios-montt-trial

[Catherina]

3. Judge Carol Patricia Flores delivering decision

She starts off how "Laws mist be interpreted. Legal norms are not a cookbook.”


Judge Carol Patricia Flores delivering decision on complaints by defense in Ríos Montt genocide trial.

- Flores "dar cumplimiento a lo ordenado por la Corte de Constitucional",
- "La CC resuelve recurso de amparo provisional. Se ordena a la juez emita en el plazo de 48hrs nueva resolución", Flores
- "las leyes habría que interpretarlas. Las normas no son un recetario de cocina (cita a un profesor de Usac", Flores
- "Es la resolución que declara sin lugar la reposición planteada (18 abr). Se argumenta que la juez se excedió de sus funciones...", Flores
- "Pero eso no es cierto", Flores. "No emitió opinión sobre el proceso".
- "Declarar sin lugar la recusación planteada en contra de la juez (Flores)"
- "No es cierto que se diga que me excedí. Al ser sentencia de carácter constitucional, resolví de conformidad", Flores.

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 41s

Ríos Montt's daughter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zury_R%C3%ADos_Montt), Zury Ríos Montt, among his supporters here in Flores court today. She has been strongest defender throughout trial.

Zuri Rios Montt escorting her father to court recently

[Catherina]

4. No way! Chaos. With the verdict a few hours away, this judge rules for Rios Montt. Rolls back trial

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 42s

Ping-pong. Judge Flores refers case back to earlier stage. Confirms her decree of April 18, dials back case to Nov. 23 2011. HT

See UK Guardian article in post 2

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 1m

"Public Prosecutor to judge: "You aren't executing in accordance with what the Constitutional Court decided. Please reconsider."

PlazaPública en Vivo ?@PzPenVivo 1m

"Los órganos jurisdiccionales no le dicen al juez lo que debe resolver. Yo interpero, de acuerdo a mis conocimientos...", Flores
The Judicial Courts do not tell a judge how to rule. I interpret based on my understanding.

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 1m

Judge Flores has just re confirmed her previous decree that genocide case be suspended & rolled back to Nov 2011 stage when she was involved

Romina Ruiz-Goiriena ?@romireports 1m

Pre-trial Judge Carol Flores attempts to stop verdict from happening. Insists proceedings must go back Nov 2011.

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 1m

Rios Montt genocide trial is once again thrown into chaos just before it reaches a milestone of completion. High drama.

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 1m

As the #GenocideGT trial judges deliberate, Flores reconfirms her April 18 resolution to annul process.

[Catherina]

5. Centre for Human Rights Legal Action says this does not affect the 4pm ruling

PlazaPública en Vivo ?@PzPenVivo 56s

CALDH: asegura que no se afecta el acto para dictar sentencia de las 4pm #juiciogenocidio
CALDH: assures that this act does not affect the 4pm judgment # juiciogenocidio

CALDH = Centre for Human Rights Legal Action

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 2m

Ríos Montt leaves court where Judge Flores has just intervened to prevent verdict from being delivered by Barrios.

[Catherina]

6. confusion as Judge Flores upholds her 4/18 ruling suspending trial however...

Rios Montt Trial ?@RiosMonttTrial 24s

- Major confusion as Carol Patricia Flores upholds her 4/18 ruling suspending #RiosMontt trial and setting it back to Nov 2011. #genocidioGT

- Public Ministry and civil parties affirm, however, that a sentence will be handed down today at 4 pm as scheduled. #RiosMontt #genocidioGT

[Catherina]

7. Attorney General Claudia Paz y Paz stated that the Flores 4/18 judgment was illegal

Rios Montt Trial ?@RiosMonttTrial 1m

- Attorney General Claudia Paz y Paz (had previously) stated that the Flores 4/18 judgment was illegal.

- In the hearing Public Prosecutor Lopez told Judge Flores that she was not complying with the Constitutional Court ruling.

Romina Ruiz-Goiriena ?@romireports 20m

Public ministry assures Judge Flores ruling disobeys constitutional court, promises to appeal. Say sentence will happen 4pm CST.

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 3m

Poster outside of Judge Flores’ courtroom, in Torre Tribunal

Translation: "We don't tolerate corruption, impunity, influence peddling" - Priceless!

[Judi Lynn]

56. "We don't tolerate corruption, impunity, influence peddling" That IS a hot one! n/t

[Catherina]

8. Judgment in Genocide Trial Expected Today at 4 pm Despite Pre-trial Judge’s Call for Annulment

Judgment in Genocide Trial Expected Today at 4 pm Despite Pre-trial Judge’s Call for Trial’s Annulment

May 10, 2013
by Jo-Marie Burt

The trial in the case of Rios Montt and Mauricio Rodriguez Sanchez for genocide and crimes against humanity concluded this morning.

The last order of business was a statement from Rodriguez Sanchez, head of military intelligence under Rios Montt’s government. He spoke to the court, affirming his innocence of the charges against him. Then, with a bang of her gavel, presiding Judge Yassmin Barrios declared the conclusion of the trial and said that the court would reconvene at 4 pm (Guatemala time) for a verdict and sentencing.

In light of a pre-scheduled hearing called by Judge Carol Patricia Flores, a pre-trial judge who handles evidentiary and other matters in connection with the case, Judge Barrios instructed the parties that, while they may attend that hearing, they are nonetheless expected to be in the courtroom at 4 pm sharp for the judgment.

In a stunning turn of events, Judge Flores then convened a hearing in which she re-affirmed a prior order annulling the entire trial and returning the case to where it was in November 2011. Judge Flores’ hearing was ostensibly called to implement a Constitutional Court judgment issued on May 8, 2013. However, the Constitutional Court’s judgment rejected the prior order Judge Flores issued annulling the trial when it was already in its late stages, and Judge Flores just issued the same order. The prosecutor strongly objected and called this order entirely inconsistent with the Constitutional Court’s judgment.

Public Ministry officials and the civil parties have asserted that, despite Judge Flores’ order, the parties will re-convene this afternoon and they expect that the court will issue its verdict and sentence then.

Final Statement of Rodriguez Sanchez

The courtroom was packed this morning and some could not enter for lack of space. At 8 am, Judge Barrios ceded the floor to Rodriguez Sanchez, who approached the witness stand in his wheelchair.

Rodriguez Sanchez affirmed his innocence and contested the evidence introduced against him.

He said that neither he nor the military operational plans presented as evidence against him—Plans Victoria 82, Firmeza 83, and Sofia—ever stated that the Maya Ixil people were the internal enemy. “I don’t know how the Public Ministry pulled that out of their sleeve. We never said that the Ixil was the internal enemy.” These were national-level plans—there were guerrillas in Peten, Ixcan, Quiche, San Marcos, and in urban areas and the southern coast—they were not implemented with the intention of exterminating the Ixil population.

Rodriguez Sanchez also said he was an advisor, and therefore not part of the chain of command. An advisor cannot emit orders, which, he said, was confirmed in the statements by military experts Rodolfo Robles and Quilo Ayuso.

“I was never an accessory to genocide,” he affirmed emphatically. “It hurts me as a Christian to see so many witnesses living with their pain,” he stated, “but I did not order this. There is not a single document that says Mauricio Rodriguez ordered this!”

He then held up a book and waved some papers around to illustrate the difference between the plans and their annexes, insisting that the Public Ministry does not understand the annexes and therefore is misinterpreting the significance of the evidence introduced. Plans lay out the strategic objectives; the annexes do different things, such as evaluate the food supply for troops, or the effects of military actions on the population.

He concluded by saying: “I have demonstrated that there were no plans. Also, I was never in the Ixil area. Ever. I do not know why I am here. I am innocent. I have been wrongfully jailed for 19 for months. I ask for my freedom.”

With the conclusion of Rodriguez Sanchez’s statement, Judge Barrios banged her gavel and stated: “The courtroom proceedings have concluded.”

She instructed the parties that the judgment would be handed down at 4 pm.

As a murmur rose up in the courtroom and people began packing up their things, she asked for everyone’s attention. She said that she was aware of the hearing convened by Judge Flores and stated that the parties were now free to attend that hearing, but that she was instructing them to be in the courtroom promptly at 4 pm for the sentencing.

Judge Flores Emits New Order to Annul the Trial; Verdict and Sentencing Still Expected at 4 pm Today

Immediately following the closing of the trial by Judge Barrios and the trial court, Judge Carol Patricia Flores, a first-instance judge of Guatemala’s high-risk courts, intervened in a repeated effort to annul the trial.

After the trial court released the lawyers and defendants from the proceedings this morning, calling all to return at 4 pm for the verdict, the parties went to Judge Flores’ courtroom to attend the hearing that she had called for 8:15 this morning. They arrived and started the hearing an hour behind schedule. The hearing was called to interpret a May 8 decision of the Constitutional Court.

Judge Flores is now assigned as the judge overseeing pre-trial evidentiary and other matters (juez controlador or juez de primera instancia). She was recently reinstated, replacing Judge Miguel Angel Galvez, another pre-trial judge, after the appellate court overturned an earlier November 28, 2011 order for her recusal, or disqualification. She notified the parties of her reinstatement on April 17, 2013, with the trial already well underway. Judge Flores' first action, after her reinstatement, was to issue an order to annul the entire trial on April 18, on the eve of anticipated closing arguments, and to return to its status in November 2011, when she was recused from the case. In November 2011, neither Rios Montt nor Rodriguez Sanchez had been indicted.

At the time, Judge Flores justified her decision on the ground that the appellate court had recognized her recusal as improper, and thus, in her view, the case must return to the date at which she was recused, improperly. She justified her intervention at that time on the ground that the Constitutional Court had, on April 3, ordered the pre-trial judge to modify its ruling concerning the admissibility of defense evidence. However, in her April 18 hearing, she did not in fact act to modify the order concerning the admissibility of defense evidence at the time because, she said, that would be inconsistent with her order to return the trial to its status as of November 2011—a time far preceding the stage when the court considers the admissibility of evidence.

The trial court on April 19 rejected the annulment of the trial as illegal, and sought guidance from the Constitutional Court. The Constitutional Court issued various rulings in the subsequent days, but none concerning the legality of the annulment until May 8. However, the Constitutional Court did require Judge Flores to issue a judgment on the narrow question of the admissibility of defense evidence—and to issue this ruling in a manner that is “exactly” consistent with the Constitutional Court judgment—and then to immediately return the case file to the trial court.

On May 8, after the trial court had already lifted its suspension and with Judge Flores still insisting that her April 18 annulment order was legal, the Constitutional Court issued a judgment addressing Judge Flores' annulment order. In its May 8 judgment, the Constitutional Court ruled in favor of the Public Ministry in its challenge to Judge Flores’ annulment order. The Court ordered Judge Flores to suspend her April 18 annulment order and, within 48 hours, issue a new order replacing the suspended one.

The Public Ministry had insisted that Judge Flores acted improperly, exceeding her authority, and that the annulment order was a violation of the rights of both the victims and the defendants to “swift and effective justice” (“una justicia pronta y cumplida”).
[link:http://www.riosmontt-trial.org/2013/05/historic-genocide-trial-nears-end-rios-montt-addresses-the-court-declares-innocence/|
Judge Flores attempted to convene a hearing on Thursday at 2 pm], while the trial court was scheduled to hear the defense’s closing arguments, and again this morning while the trial court was hearing the statement of Rodriguez Sanchez. She was finally able to convene a hearing at 9:30 am this morning, after the trial court fully completed the trial—having heard all evidence and closing statements and calling on the parties to return at 4 pm for a verdict.

At the hearing, Judge Flores issued a new order annulling the trial, despite the Constitutional Court’s rejection of her first annulment. According to Judge Flores, the Constitutional Court required her only to suspend the first annulment and issue a new order; she insisted that this was all she was doing.

She stated that she was not exceeding her authority (“no se excedió sus funciones”), as had been argued by the Public Ministry. She again insisted that the case must revert to where it was in November 2011, and that her order issued today was consistent with the Constitutional Court’s May 8 judgment.

The Public Ministry strongly objected, but Judge Flores continued to stand by her order. Orlando Lopez, representing the Public Ministry, contested Judge Flores’ interpretation of the May 8 Constitutional Court judgment—in his view, the Constitutional Court judgment required that Judge Flores emit a different judgment, and not merely re-affirm the one she had previously issued.

Attorney General Claudia Paz previously stated that Judge Flores' April 18 annulment order was illegal. Yet media sources have quoted defense attorney Francisco Palomo asserting that any verdict issued today “will be null” (sera nula) on account of Judge Flores’ actions this morning. Sources from the Public Ministry and civil parties insist that Judge Flores’ actions today are patently in violation of the Constitutional Court’s judgment, and that nothing in her order suspends the trial or prevents the planned release of the verdict this afternoon. They have stated that they still expect Judge Barrios to convene the parties to issue a verdict at 4 pm today, and that that verdict will be legitimate.

Emi MacLean, Legal Officer of the Open Society Justice Initiative, provided the legal analysis and contributed writing for this blog.

Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative License.

http://www.riosmontt-trial.org/2013/05/judgment-in-genocide-trial-expected-today-at-4-pm-despite-pre-trial-judges-call-for-trials-annulment/

[Catherina]

9. Guardian: Guatemala genocide trial: witnesses of atrocities tell their stories

Guatemala genocide trial: witnesses of atrocities tell their stories - video

VIDEO at link
Guatemala's ex-dictator Efraín Ríos Montt is the first former president to be charged with genocide by a Latin American court. He denies genocide and crimes against humanity. Here, witnesses give their accounts of some of the atrocities between 1960 and 1996, when more than 200,000 people are thought to have died

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/video/2013/may/10/guatemala-genocide-trial-victim-video?CMP=twt_gu

Great comment at site

This is not just a Guatemalan Genocide , it is one of the many US Holocausts where the military , death squads and Government torturers were trained and funded by the US at it's ' School of the America's ' in the USA. It's Armed forces provided the massive numbers of ' advisors ' who accompanied the Guatemalan military on it's death sprees . The Guardian recently unmasked the same US personnel behind the death squads in Iraq . The trail of corpses and mass murder is global in the US's relentless ' war of terror ' it has unleashed in pursuit of it's global strategic interests . All US Presidents and politicians are aware of it , both then and now .
Remember these stories , these atrocities when you look at the beguiling smiling faces of American Politicians when they talk of ' American Values ' .

[Judi Lynn]

58. Perfectly focused, truthful comment. Thanks for including it. n/t

[Catherina]

10. 3:45PM Rios Montt enters the courtroom, sparse applause and shouts of 'asesino'

Rios Montt Trial ?@RiosMonttTrial 22s

Rios Montt enters the courtroom, sparse applause and shouts of 'asesino'

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 36s

Defendants walk in. Courtroom erupts in cheers, boos, claps, jeers, this has not happened before. Ríos Montt supporters lead “VIVA!” chants.

PlazaPública en Vivo ?@PzPenVivo 42s

Entra #RiosMontt . Entre aplausos y abucheos. "Que viva el ejército de Guatemala", algunos. "Genocida", otros. #juiciogenocidio

[Judi Lynn]

86. ....."I am innocent," Ríos Montt tells court in genocide trial, breaking silence

Guatemala: "I am innocent," Ríos Montt tells court in genocide trial, breaking silence

Xeni Jardin at 1:45 pm Thu, May 9, 2013

As the trial of Guatemala's former military dictator, José Efraín Ríos Montt, and his then head of intelligence, José Mauricio Rodriguez Sanchez, moved toward its conclusion this afternoon in Guatemala City, an unexpected thing happened: Ríos Montt asked to speak. He has remained mostly silent since the trial began on March 19. Today, he spoke in his own defense for the first time.

"I was not a commander," Ríos Montt shouted before the court just now, arguing his innocence, "I was head of state! I never authorized any plan to exterminate the Ixiles. There is no evidence to prove otherwise."

The former general and his attorneys asked the judge for permission to speak after the "debate" portion of the trial had closed, and the proceedings moved to closing arguments. Judge Yassmin Barrios first denied the request, stating that it was out of order; the defendant was given many opportunities to speak while the debate portion was open, but chose to remain silent then. After further debate and deliberation, and a tirade of insults directed at the judge and Ministerio Publico from defense attorney Francisco Garcia Gudiel, the judges granted Ríos Montt the right to address the court.

I was in a press crush at the general's feet, and shot video of him speaking a few feet away from me, on my iPhone. I'll publish the video of his 55-minute monologue later. For now, a few screengrabs.

.........



More:
http://boingboing.net/2013/05/09/guatemala-i-am-innocent.html

[Catherina]

11. Waiting, waiting... The courtroom is packed. 10 more minutes now...

(these photos are from earlier in the week)

[Judi Lynn]

85. Thank you for the photos. People of so many generations came. n/t

[Catherina]

12. Nazi supporter of Montt in courtroom again today

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 38s

Dude I saw my first day here, hanging with Ríos Montt’s supporters, who was carrying Mein Kampf with a swastika on cover—dude’s back.

He would be just one of many.

[Judi Lynn]

59. Wow. Audacious, but honest when a rightest shows his colors. n/t

[Catherina]

13. electric air of anticipation fills the air / Live video feed

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 1m

An electric air of anticipation fills the air! The judges should enter courtroom any minute.

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 2m

One possibility to consider: court may deliver a not-guilty verdict on genocide, but a yes guilty verdict on crimes against humanity.

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 22s

Live video feed of #GenocideGT verdict here: http://paraqueseconozca.blogspot.com

[Catherina]

14. Judges enter to overwhelming applause

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 2s

Judges enter. Courtroom quiets down.

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 12s

“Good afternoon,” Judge Barrios says. Calls court to order. Cheers, claps from some; boos and jeers from others. Wow.

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 19s

The judges enter courtroom to overwhelming applause.

[Catherina]

15. "We're going to give a sentence based on the consciousness of the Guatemalan republic"

Romina Ruiz-Goiriena ?@romireports 23s

Barrios "We're going to give a sentence based on the consciousness of the Guatemalan republic" #GenocideGT

Renata Avila ?@avilarenata now

Gosh! Ríos Montt defense lawyer screaming like a maniac.

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 8s

That was really unbelievable.

Judge then announces

Rios Montt Trial ?@RiosMonttTrial 14s

If any one yells, interferes with the court's reading of the sentence, they will be removed from the courtroom. #RiosMontt trial.

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 10s

García Gudiel yells interrupting the judge & asks for chance to speak. Barrios responds: anyone who yells will be removed from courtroom

[Catherina]

16. Judge Barrios begins reading the sentence. Begins by reviewing the charges

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 36s

Judge Barrios begins reading the sentence. Begins by reviewing the charges Ríos Montt and Rodriguez Sanchez are charged with.

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 1m

Atrocities that include rape, extrajudicial executions, forced displacement.

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 22s

Judge refers to Plan Victoria 82, a leaked Guatemalan Army document, in analyzing the Army’s culpability in atrocities.

Renata Avila ?@avilarenata 18s

Tribunal: Fact: Civilians where exterminated by the Guatemalan Army. #genocidegt

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 36s

Barrios: The campaign of killing caused the Ixil to flee, or become part of the mandatory civil patrols (PACs)

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 14s

Judge’s voice is trembling as she reads.

Romina Ruiz-Goiriena ?@romireports 21s

Judge is explains how Ixil people were raped, starved, murdered and criminilize. #GenocideGT

[Catherina]

17. Barrios refers to Plan Victoria 82: The objective was to annul the civil population,

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 21s

Barrios refers to Plan Victoria 82: The objective was to annul the civil population, not just combatants.

Romina Ruiz-Goiriena ?@romireports 18s

Barrios: "In 1982 and 1983 Ixils were criminilized jsut for being Ixils"

Rios Montt Trial ?@RiosMonttTrial 26s

Judge Barrios says the Ixil population was criminalized. The only fact of pertaining to this indigenous group was a fatal crime.

Renata Avila ?@avilarenata 42s

Sofia 82: Hunger, ¨Aldeas Modelo¨ (sort of concentration camp to reeducate), forced recruitment, criminalization of Ixil. #genocidegt

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 35s

Lots of armed security guards, police in this very packed courtroom.

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 31s

Barrios: In Plan Firmeza 83, the objective was physical and psychological control.

[Catherina]

18. Judge Barrios: Hunger, rape were strategies of control... We could see the pain of the victims

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 24s

Judge Barrios: Hunger was a strategy of control.

Romina Ruiz-Goiriena ?@romireports 21s

Barrios: "Genocide took place in #Guatemala against the Ixil people" #GenocideGT

Rios Montt Trial ?@RiosMonttTrial 8s

- Judge Barrios reads from expert testimony of Liz Ogelsby and Hector Rosado about violence against Ixiles.

- Experts showed Ixiles were considered base of the guerrilla; there was an effort to starve them out to undermine support for guerrilla.

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 2s

Judge Barrios: The simply fact of belonging to the Ixil ethnic group was a crime punishable by death.

Rios Montt Trial ?@RiosMonttTrial 15s

Now Barrios refers to forensic evidence presented in the #RiosMontt trial.

Judge also noting how the Rioss Montt campaign destroyed Ixil homes, their crops, indiscriminately killed men, women and children, forcing those who escaped to flee to the mountains

Rios Montt Trial ?@RiosMonttTrial 28s

Violence carried out by military forced indigenous people from Ixil area to flee into the mountains, said experts presented by prosecution

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 59s

Judge Barrios is now referring to the forensic science evidence in the trial. Scientific analysis of human remains that reveal truths.

Rios Montt Trial ?@RiosMonttTrial 42s

Juez Barrios: Pudimos constatar el dolor de las victimas Judge Barrios: We could see the pain of the victims

Rios Montt Trial ?@RiosMonttTrial 5s

Judge Barrios recalls the testimonies presented by several women who were sexually violated, in one case by more than 20 soldiers

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 27s

Judge: Army systematically rape Ixil women. Including pregnant women and elderly women. This contributed to social, ethnic destruction.

Rios Montt Trial ?@RiosMonttTrial 27s

these testimonies reveal that the Guatemalan army did in fact sexually violate women, and that this was part of a strategy to eliminate Ixil

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 11s

Judge refers testimonies of Ixil women who spoke re: surviving rape by Army soldiers. Some, more than 20 at time; routinely held for weeks.

[Judi Lynn]

60. From these entries, something we've heard used elsewhere:

Judge Barrios: Hunger was a strategy of control.

Also, related:

Rios Montt Trial ?@RiosMonttTrial 8s

- Judge Barrios reads from expert testimony of Liz Ogelsby and Hector Rosado about violence against Ixiles.

- Experts showed Ixiles were considered base of the guerrilla; there was an effort to starve them out to undermine support for guerrilla.

Sounds familiar, does it not? Threatening the support group with scarcity of food, undermining support for the people they support? Sounds familiar as hell to me!

[Catherina]

19. use of sexual violence was a deliberate tactic with which to tear apart the social fabric.

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 1m

Judge Barrios: The use of sexual violence by the Army was a deliberate tactic with which to tear apart the social fabric.

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 1m

Judge describes methods of forced loss of cultural identity, an effect also of forced displacement.

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 1m

Judge Barrios highlights the pain expressed by the Ixil at being displaced from their ancestral land.

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 48s

(One gets the sense a verdict that includes guilt of genocide may well be on the way.)

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 1m

Judge Barrios: The judges consider it admirable the way the Ixiles have expressed their cultural identity. #GenocideGT trial

[Judi Lynn]

61. The judge is phenomenal. Hope they won't harm her for her courage. n/t

[Catherina]

78. Me too. HUGE. "Trial has marked a turning point 4 rape survivors, breaking taboo of sexual violence"

The trial has marked a turning point for rape survivors, breaking the taboo of sexual violence used as a weapon of war, local rights groups say.

“This is the first time in a national court that the issue of sexual violence has been aired more than 15 years after the war ended,” said Alejandra Castillo, assistant director of Guatemala's Human Rights Legal Action Centre (CALDH). “It’s an issue that has until now remained invisible. It’s very important because it’s a recognition that sexual violence of this nature happened.”

...

Victims of the civil war, many from Guatemala’s northwestern state of Quiche, a mountainous region home to poor subsistence farmers from the Ixil indigenous population, have shared gruesome testimony. Mothers have described watching their sons being killed and their homes torched by soldiers. Others have described unborn children being cut out of pregnant women.

...

“I was 12 years old when they took to me to a military unit with other women and tied my hands and feet up … they placed a cloth over my mouth … and then they began to rape me … I don’t know how many men were involved … I lost consciousness. My blood ran down me. After, I couldn’t even get up or go urinate,” one woman told the court, according to court records made public.

...

“I also saw how many soldiers raped my daughter. She was only 12 years old then and they held her down in my bed. There were four soldiers who raped my daughter. They were hitting her very hard and she didn’t stop crying.”

...

http://www.trust.org/item/20130510144558-362tb

[Judi Lynn]

80. Unfathomable that anyone would engage in sexual violence.

How much hatred can anyone have to deal with another human being like this?

What a shame every one of these people can't be located and tried.

It's a crime against the spirit of the victims, and the spirit of everyone who knows them or hears of the crime.

It's a shame they ever live to walk away from these crimes.

[Catherina]

88. All of them. You know what really kills me? "soldiers jailed 4 more than 6,000 years over massacre"

How come soldiers are getting 600 years for a few people, Rios Montt is sentenced to 80 years for a 'few' more, and all the others, within and without Guatemala, are untouched?

Guatemalan soldiers jailed for more than 6,000 years over massacre
Wednesday 3 August 2011

Four ex-members of special forces unit sentenced for their part in slaughter of 201 civilians in 1982 during country's civil war


Former soldier Reyes Collin Gualip leaves court after he and three other men were sentenced over the massacre of 201 people in 1982 during the Guatemalan civil war. Photograph: Saul Martinez/EPA

Three Guatemalan former special forces soldiers have been sentenced to 6,060 years in prison each for the 1982 massacre of 201 men, women and children during the Central American country's civil war.

A former army second lieutenant was also sentenced to 6,066 years in prison for the same massacre in the village of Dos Erres in Guatemala's northern Peten region.

The length of the sentences is largely symbolic since under Guatemalan law the maximum time a convict can serve is 50 years.

The sentences for Manuel Pop Sun, Reyes Collin Gualip and Daniel Martinez include 30 years for each death, plus 30 years for crimes against humanity. The three men are former members the Guatemalan military's elite Kaibil unit.

...

While more than 40 soldiers guarded the perimeter of the community, the men raped and killed women and girls, and banished hundreds of people from the community, according to the filings.

...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/03/guatemala-soldiers-jailed-massacre

[Judi Lynn]

95. For Dos Erres, which name is infamous all over the world, now.

Makes no sense at all, tells the world the same people are in control in Guatemala.

Insane, and arrogant. The government's legal system owes far more than this. How can they expect respect from the people when they flaunt the law, themselves by still allowing all these monsters the run of the place?

Judge Flores shows us the oligarchs are still very much active, and powerful.

[Catherina]

20. Judge says this was done because they considered the Ixil subhuman

Rios Montt Trial ?@RiosMonttTrial 28s

Martha Casaud expert testimony explains historic racism in #guatemala, explains typical stereotypes of indigenous as inferior beings

My note, even today, right now, the indigenous people were not allowed to use the court's bathrooms. The Prosecution made a fuss about that.

Racism is alive and well

Rios Montt Trial ?@RiosMonttTrial 1m

Casaud expert testimony showed how racism was the basis of genocide #RiosMontt #genocidioGT

[Judi Lynn]

62. You don't want to believe it, but it's true. Just like the U.S. South has been.

In Bolivia, the Bolivian people were not allowed to walk on the sidewalk until after a revolution in 1952, even though any income taxes they had to pay of course helped to pay for things like sidewalks for the European descended people there.

Some of the U.S. taxpayers money should be spend upon promotion of legislation to transform Guatemala's racism to decent respect for ALL people, ALL PEOPLE. If we have money to slaughter people without our knowledge, why not at least spend US taxpayers' money upon encouraging their politicians to allow their suffering poor the respect due ANY human being?

Filthy, filthy monsters all over the place!

We would not have known this without your post, Catherina. Thank you, so much.

[Catherina]

21. Jadge states RiosMontt was aware of plans, refers to his Sunday sermons

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 1m

Barrios: People who survived the massacres have psychological impacts... that continue today & continue to impact subsequent generations

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 45s

Judge refers to testimony of Marta Elena Casaús, who testified about the roots of genocide being institutional racism.

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 7s

Judge Barrios states #RiosMontt was aware of plans, also referring to his Sunday radio messages.

Ríos Montt, 1982: “No more assassinated people will appear on roadside. Anyone outside the law will be executed."

[Catherina]

22. "The Ixil women who testified about sexual violence here broke silence"...

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 1m

Judge Barrios: The Ixil women who testified about sexual violence here broke silence, by testifying to the world how they were raped.

Renata Avila ?@avilarenata 15s

Here all the analysis of Military Plans discussed by Judge Barros now at @RiosMonttTrial http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB425/

[Judi Lynn]

63. Information about this one and Plan Victoria Campaign 82 has been inaccessable

by the public all this time!

Have saved this as soon as seeing your post, reading it later.

Simply amazing!

[Catherina]

23. Judge highlights constant communication btwn military

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 21s

- Barrios quotes Firmeza, "detect the enemy & pursue until capture or destruction" & highlights constant communication btwn military.

- Judge Barrios: Plan Sofia contemplates the elimination of subversives.

- Judge Barrios: As has been proved, it was not a spontaneous act but result of elaborated plans aimed at elimination of specific group.

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 39s

Judge describes how witnesses & evidence showed how intel was transmitted, the role of intel in command and control.

darn, just lost the video feed

[Catherina]

25. "clandestine cemeteries, mental harm, transfer of children from one group to another"

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 2m

Barrios mentions clandestine cemeteries, mental harm, transfer of children from one group to another.

Rios Montt Trial ?@RiosMonttTrial 1m

Judge Barrios: We are totally convinced in this case that elements demonstrating intention to commit genocide have been proven

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 2m

Barrios: Civil pop was subject to massive assassinations, massacres, torture, rape, for which we are convinced of the crime of genocide.

Renata Avila ?@avilarenata 1m

Now worried: it is clear the verdict will be guilty. Rios Montt still powerful in the area. The Guatemalan Government must protect survivors

[Catherina]

26. Judge: Rios Montt was aware of everything. He had the utmost authority to stop massacres

Romina Ruiz-Goiriena ?@romireports 1m

Barrios: Evidence shows head of state and intelligence had enough power and responsibility to have stopped the massacres" #GenocideGT

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 2m

Judge: According to witnesses, the highest in command (defendants) had control of the Army.

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 1m

Judge Barrios: #RiosMontt was aware of everything that happened & never stopped it.

Romina Ruiz-Goiriena ?@romireports 1m

Barrios: We believe #RiosMontt knew exactly what was happening and did nothing to stop it.

Renata Avila ?@avilarenata 1m

Wow, tribunal even considered the Sunday Morning preaching as indicator that Rios Montt was aware of the genocide and did not stop it.

Romina Ruiz-Goiriena ?@romireports 1m

Barrios: #RiosMontt was the head of state and maximum commander in chief. He had the utmost authority to stop massacres

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 1m

Judge Barrios: As head of state, Rios Montt received regular intelligence re: ops, highest levels of military were aware of plans, actions.

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 11s

Judge Barrios refers to the aerial bombing of Ixil communities by helicopters. (footnote: many supplied by US.)

[Catherina]

27. Judge: "We believe the conduct expressed by Rios Montt is guilty of genocide

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 43s

Judge Barrios refers to the aerial bombing of Ixil communities by helicopters. (footnote: many supplied by US.)

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 45s

Barrios: Witnesses themselves said they saw planes coming to the area to bomb... authorized by the President of military.

Romina Ruiz-Goiriena ?@romireports 34s

Barrios: "We believe the conduct expressed by #RiosMontt is guilty of genocide #GEnocideGT

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 44s

Barrios: We consider that #RiosMontt is guilty of genocide.

PlazaPública en Vivo ?@PzPenVivo 20s

#JuicioRiosMontt Consideramos que la conducta de Efrain Rios Mont se inscribe en el delito de genocidio: juez Barrios

[Catherina]

28. Judge: JM Rodriguez not guilty of any charges (of genocide)

Romina Ruiz-Goiriena ?@romireports 49s

#JMRodriguez not guilty of any charges #GenocideGT

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 57s

Barrios: We absolve #JMRodriguez of the charges.

My note: She still has to rule on crimes against humanity

[Catherina]

29. Judge: Rios Montt guilty of genocide - 50 years in prison

Rios Montt Trial ?@RiosMonttTrial 23s

Judge Barrios: #RiosMontt responsible of crimes against humanity

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 1m

Barrios: The judges consider that #RiosMontt as de facto head of state & commander of military is also guilty of crime against humanity.

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 1m

Cheers and claps as sentence is read.

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 1m

Barrios: We absolve #JMRodriguez of all charges.

Rios Montt Trial ?@RiosMonttTrial 1m

Barrios: 50 years in prison for #RiosMontt

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 2m

Barrios: #RiosMontt is sentenced to 50 years in prison for genocide.

[Catherina]

30. Rios Montt guilty of crimes against humanity - 30 years of prison for that

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 2m

- Barrios also sentences #RIosMontt to 30 years of prison for crimes against humanity.

- Barrios: The damage incurred is irreparable.

- Barrios: We as a population have to express the recognition of genocide affects all of Guatemala.

- Barrios: Guatemala wants to live in peace... We don't want atrocities like this to be repeated.

- Barrios: In Guatemala, justice must prevail.

[Catherina]

31. hearing on May 13 at 830AM to establish reparations to the victims

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate

- The crowd erupts in applause as Judge Barrios pauses.

- Judge Barrios convenes hearing on May 13 at 830AM to establish reparations to the victims

- Barrios: The Public Prosecutor must continue investigation to determine all those responsible for these acts..

HUGE HUGE CHEERS

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate

Barrios; #RiosMontt is responsible as author of acts of genocide against life & integrity of the people of Nebaj, Cotzal, Chajul.

[Catherina]

32. Rios Montt to prison right now. 80 total years in prison, non commutable

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 1m

Barrios; #RiosMontt is responsible as author of acts of genocide against life & integrity of the people of Nebaj, Cotzal, Chajul.

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 1m

Judge Barrios: The public prosecutor must continue to investigate, to determine all of those who are responsible for these acts (genocide).

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 1m

#RiosMontt is charged with a total of 80 non-commutable years to prison.

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 1m

Jose Mauricio Rodriguez Sanchez absolved of charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.

Romina Ruiz-Goiriena ?@romireports 1m

#Barrios: #RiosMontt will spend night in jail

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 1m

#RiosMontt's house arrest is immediately revoked and he's ordered directly to prison.

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 1m

Judge Barrios: Rios Montt charged with 80 total years in prison, non commutable, for the charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.

Rios Montt Trial ?@RiosMonttTrial 1m

Judge Barrios imposes the following sentence on #RiosMontt: 50 years for genocide. 30 years for crimes against humanity.

[naaman fletcher]

47. Awesome

Thanks again for the incredible updates

[Judi Lynn]

54. Congratuations to Guatemala & to the system which provided this brave judge.

Catherina, thank you for posting this excellent thread, and all the valuable posts which have kept the information flowing here, where we get so little real, trustworthy information of any kind.

Hoping so hard someone from Perez' assassins' pool won't shoot Judge Barrios down as a warning to any judge who might be asked to take the case against President Perez, should that one ever be allowed to go to trial.

...80 total years in prison, non commutable, for the charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.

Long live the people of Guatemala.

[Catherina]

57. You're welcome my friend

I'm worried for Judge Barrios too.

It's not a comforting sign when the defense yells to you that they'll see you rot in jail. If only that threat were the least of it too.

I'm also very concerned for the Mayan women who came forward. They're already viewed as subhumans for not having any European blood and the people behind Foundation Against Terror aren't know for holding back, or for being reasonable or human themselves.

Maybe, maybe the idea of having Rios Montt be a sacrificial lamb would have worked but his daughter doesn't seem like the type who understand or forgets.

80 years for less than 2000 slaughters. What about the other 248,000?

Long live the people of Guatemala.

[Judi Lynn]

72. Rios-Montt's daughter, Zuri absolutely doesn't seem likely to forget

that her father was given a fair trial in Guatemala, either.

Even though he should have been given a sentence of hundreds of years, to make a point of it, it is a wonder they didn't have the means to avoid this trial, too!

Zuri's still married to that Illinois Republican Congressman. The Rios-Montt family probably has more US allies than any U.S. Democrat in the whole country. They are probably deadly dangerous for a very long time, still.

The people are the ones who matter now, and always. The others are such slow learners, and they fight facing the truth. They are going to lose, in time, even if they DO keep creating new terror groups to try to terrorize the people into submission. In time their weapons will fail them, will fall away, and they'll be left defenseless themselves. They will learn they can't forever hire or force men to murder their fellow man. That system is going to disappear and take them with it.

[Judi Lynn]

64. Thank god. Guatemala owes thanks, respect to the prosecutor, the clean judges.

They had to think FIRST far, FAR beyond their own concerns, even their own futures. Only good, virtuous people are strong enough to do this.

We all know this.

[Catherina]

33. Cheers, cheers - "Yes there was genocide"

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 1m

- On Friday, May 17, at 3PM judges will read complete verdict. ?

- Judge Barrios closes #GenocideGT verdict: The tribunal has fulfilled it's obligation to emit a sentence

Romina Ruiz-Goiriena ?@romireports 1m

#RiosMontt goes to Matamoros jail with #Portillo #GenocideGT

Rios Montt Trial ?@RiosMonttTrial 1m

gallery erupts into applause and shouts of "Justice! Justice!"

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 1m

Ixiles erupt into cheers: SI HUBO GENOCIDIO!

(Yes there was a genocide)

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 1m

Many burst into tears of joy and crowd chants "Yes! It was genocide" #Sihubogenocidio

Romina Ruiz-Goiriena ?@romireports 1m

Ppl clamour"Yes there was genocide" as proceedings conclude #GenocideGT. Juridical truth has been established

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 1m

Barrios; I know we’re all emotional because justice has been done, but please, let’s calm down. Order, please, in the court.

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 1m

We hear a loud boom near defense table, gallery jumps to feet.

[Catherina]

34. loud boom near defense table. Rios Montt trying to leave the courtroom as if not guilty

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 2m

We hear a loud boom near defense table, gallery jumps to feet.

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 1m

Judge: No is allowed to take Rios Montt out of the courtroom! Only the police! Not his attorney!

Rios Montt Trial ?@RiosMonttTrial 2m

Commotion continues. Judge Barrios: It is prohibited for the accused to laeve until the police comes to remove him from the courtroom.

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 2m

Rios Montt’s attorneys try to remove him from the courtroom. Judge Barrios yells for security to restrain him. Voice trembling.

Romina Ruiz-Goiriena ?@romireports 2m

#RiosMontt attemps to illegally exit courtroom. Barrios orders police #GenocideGT

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 2m

Judge: This is a legal sentence by a court. You cannot ignore it. It must be completed. It must be respected.

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 2m

Judge to lawyers. ”If you want to leave you may. But the accused may not leave!” Her voice is shaking, out of breath, trembling.

.

[Judi Lynn]

65. Judge Barrios may feel it necessary to leave Guatemala after this.

IF so, she should avoid South Florida. Too many Rios-Montt supporters there!

Hooray for the tremendously brave, good Judge Barrios.

[Catherina]

35. The courtroom is totally out of control. There are a lot of people and guns in here

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 2m

Judge: Please use the security phones to call the police. He must be restrained and can only be removed by police to be taken to jail.

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 2m

Barrios: We will not leave the courtroom until #RiosMontt is handed over to police. She calls for head of court security.

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 3m

Judge to lawyers: Do not stand in the way of the orders of justice.

The live feed is incredible! http://paraqueseconozca.blogspot.com/

Rios Montt Trial ?@RiosMonttTrial 3m

- Journalists are contributing to the problem, swarming around the defendant and generating commotion.

- Judge Barrios asks journalists to sit down. They don't really move.

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 2m

There is a pyramid of photographers piled up all around the defense table, it’s insane. Now crowd screaming: Photogs, move back, they shout.

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 2m

The courtroom is totally out of control. There are a lot of people and guns in here.

[Catherina]

36. People telling at Press who seem to be shielding Rios Montt. Judge calls 4 security

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 2m

Barrios: We ask for #humanrights office to ensure that accused is not removed from courtroom.

Rios Montt Trial ?@RiosMonttTrial 3m

THere is chaos in the room. Judge yells for security to restore order. There seems to be some kind of struggle over where #RiosMontt is

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 3m

- Judge yells at photographers: please, stand back! Security guards, pull them back from the defendants! Let there be order!

- Screaming in courtroom.

Rios Montt Trial ?@RiosMonttTrial 3m

Gallery says: "Fuera prensa" "Out with the press" #RiosMontt

Rios Montt Trial ?@RiosMonttTrial 2m

LEAVE! LEAVE! shouting from the gallery, towards the press

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 2m

Woah. Gallery yells fuera prensa! Out, press!

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 2m

Press tightened circle around #RiosMontt & gallery called for them to disperse. Barrios: You cannot immobilize Rios Montt.

Rios Montt Trial ?@RiosMonttTrial 2m

Judge Barrios: We ask help from the HUman RIghts Ombuds Office to prevent a possible flight from justice of the accused.

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 2m

Barrios: #JMRodriguez is absolved and may leave courtroom once situation is calmer.

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 2m

Surreal scene around defense. Huge mob of photogs swarming Rios Montt, aiming their cameras down at him as if guns; he shrinks beneath them.

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 1m

- Judge Barrios: JM Rodriguez has been absolved of all crimes; he is free to leave the courtroom when he wishes.

- Judge: But not Rios Montt. Waiting for police to arrive to take him to prison.

- Judge Barrios asks Human Rights Ombudsman’s office to prevent possible flight from justice on part of Rios Montt.

Renata Avila ?@avilarenata 51s

Very very very very worried about the reaction of Rios Montt supporters backed by far right wing and the Guatemalan press.
#genocidegt

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 1m

Prosecution team files out to congratulations, handshakes, thumbs up & applause.

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 1m

CALDH, AJR, prosecution attorneys file out. Looking nervous. Judge Barrios speaking about need for safety and order.

Rios Montt Trial ?@RiosMonttTrial 54s

Tensions cooling as Judge Barrios tries to restore order, calls for people to act civilly, but still a lot of chaos due to press #RiosMontt

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 56s

Judge Barrios: We do not want more violence. This trial should serve to promote peace in our nation.

[Catherina]

37. Judge Barrios: We are staying here until the police come. Press, please maintain order.

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 1m

Other than prosecution team, & RM, no one seems to be in hurry to leave courtroom. Press, observers, Ixiles, supporters, huge crowd remains.

[Catherina]

38. WTF! Rios Montt already giving a phone interview.

Romina Ruiz-Goiriena ?@romireports 8s

#RiosMontt is on @EmisorasUnidas giving a phone interview after being found guilty for #GenocideGT

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 33s

Rios Montt is yelling something. Inside press throng.

Livestream cut again. Damn

Link to Emisoras Unidas http://noticias.emisorasunidas.com/ & http://noticias.emisorasunidas.com/category/etiquetas/efrain-rios-montt

The press is NOT helping. No tweets coming in. I'm guessing it's a bit chaotic in there right now. They were circling him and preventing order in the court.

[Catherina]

39. "This is an international political show" say Rios Montt

Last edited Fri May 10, 2013, 08:02 PM - Edit history (1)

PlazaPública en Vivo ?@PzPenVivo 16s

"Este es un show político internacional", dijo #RiosMontt.
"This is an international political show" say Rios Montt

Friday, May 10, 2013 - 17:45
Rios Montt: "This is an international political show"


Former head of State, José Efraín Ríos Montt, sentenced to 80 years in prison. Photo: Elisha Leo.

After hearing the sentence of 80 years in prison against the former head of State, José Efraín Ríos Montt stated that the decision of the Court is an "international political show."

He also said that the elements on which the ruling was based have no legal foundation and all proceedings in the Court have no validity.

http://noticias.emisorasunidas.com/noticias/nacionales/rios-montt-esto-show-politico-internacional

[Catherina]

40. Press has reformed a tight circle around Montt. authorities have arrived to remove him

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 40s

#GenocideGT courtroom gallery remains in place. Press has reformed a tight circle around #RiosMontt

WTF Press! WTF.

PlazaPública en Vivo ?@PzPenVivo 30s

"Ya llegaron las autoridades para llevarse al acusado", afirma jueza. #juiciogenocidio
"The authorities have arrived to remove the accused" says the judge

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 7s

Section of #GenocideGT gallery breaks out singing a hymn of justice.

[Catherina]

41. Courtroom singing "We only want to be human"

Romina Ruiz-Goiriena ?@romireports 26s

Courtroom has just broken into song "We only want to be human" #GenocideGT

PlazaPública en Vivo ?@PzPenVivo 34s

El público empieza a cantar el poema musicalizado de Otto René Castillo. "Aquí solo queremos ser humanos", el auditorio.

Here's a youtube of a song to Otto René Castillo's poem

[Judi Lynn]

66. These images are valuable accompanying the poem/song. Thank you. n/t

[Catherina]

74. You're welcome with hugs. About Otto Rene Castillo, Guatemalan communist poet and revolutionary

I feel a thread coming for the martyred revolutionary musicians of Latin American coming soon I'd never heard of Castillo before and wanted to look him up first thing in the morning.


Otto Rene Castillo



Otto Rene Castillo, born 1936, was a Guatemalan revolutionary, a guerilla fighter, and a poet. Following the 1954 CIA-sponsored coup that overthrew the democratic Arbenz government, Castillo went into exile in El Salvador, where he met Roque Dalton and other writers who helped him publish his early works. When the dictator Armas died in 1957 he returned to Guatemala and in 1959 went to the German Democratic Republic to study, where he received a Masters degree. Castillo returned to Guatemala in 1964 and became active in the Workers Party, founded the Experimental Theater of the Capital City Municipality, and wrote and published numerous poems. That same year, he was arrested but managed to escape, going into exile once again, this time in Europe. Later that year he went back to Guatemala secretly and joined one of the armed guerilla movements operating in the Zacapa mountains. In 1967, Castillo and other revolutionary fighters were captured; he, along with his comrades and some local campesinos, were brutally tortured and then burned alive.

Works:
http://vimeo.com/39080625

Apolitical Intellectuals

One day
the apolitical
intellectuals
of my country
will be interrogated
by the simplest
of our people.

They will be asked
what they did
when their nation died out
slowly,
like a sweet fire
small and alone.

No one will ask them
about their dress,
their long siestas
after lunch,
no one will want to know
about their sterile combats
with "the idea
of the nothing"
no one will care about
their higher financial learning.

They won't be questioned
on Greek mythology,
or regarding their self-disgust
when someone within them
begins to die
the coward's death.

They'll be asked nothing
about their absurd
justifications,
born in the shadow
of the total lie.

On that day
the simple men will come.

Those who had no place
in the books and poems
of the apolitical intellectuals,
but daily delivered
their bread and milk,
their tortillas and eggs,
those who drove their cars,
who cared for their dogs and gardens
and worked for them,
and they'll ask:

"What did you do when the poor
suffered, when tenderness
and life
burned out of them?"

Apolitical intellectuals
of my sweet country,
you will not be able to answer.

A vulture of silence
will eat your gut.

Your own misery
will pick at your soul.

And you will be mute in your shame.

--Otto Rene Castillo

Also Satisfaction

Also Before the Scales, Tomorrow


http://www.marxists.org/subject/art/literature/castillo/

There's a more detailed biography here

Even Beneath This Bitterness

At the bottom of the night
the footsteps descend and retreat.
Shadows surround them.
Streets, drunks. Buildings.
Someone running away from himself.
A broken bottle, bleeding.
A widowed paper sailing around a corner.
A freethinker pissing on the grass,
where tomorrow the well-dressed children
will play

beneath the dew.

Far away something screams, dark metal, genital.
Asphalt and blind stones, sleeping air,
darkness, cold, police, cold, more police.
Streets, whores, drunks, buildings.
Police again, soldiers, again police.
The statistics say: for every 80,000 officers of the law
there is one doctor in Guatemala.

Then understand the misery of my country,
and my pain and everyone's pain.
If when I say: Bread!

they say

shut up!
and when I say: Liberty!

they say

Die!
But I don't shut up and I don't die.
I live
and fight, maddening
those who rule my country.

For if I live
I fight,
and if I fight
I contribute to the dawn.
And so victory is born
even in the bitterest hours.

― Otto René Castillo



Report of an Injustice
[P align="right"]“For the past few days the personal belongings of Mrs.
Damiana Murcia widow of Garcia, 77 years of age, have
been out in the rain where they were thrown from her
humble living quarters located at 15 “C” Street, between
3rd and 4th, Zone 1.”

(Radio newspaper “Diario Minuto”
first edition, Wednesday, June 10, 1964.)[/P align="right"]

Perhaps you can't believe it,
but here,
before my eyes,
an old woman,
Damiana Murcia widow of Garcia,
77 years of ashes,
under the rain,
beside her furniture,
broken, stained, old,
receives
on the curve of her back
all the monstrous injustice
of your system, and mine.
For being poor,
the judges of the rich
ordered eviction.
Perhaps you no longer
understand that word.
How noble the world
you live in!
Little by little
the bitterest words
lose their cruelty there.
And every day,
like the dawn,
new words emerge
all full of love
and tenderness for man.

Eviction,
how to explain it?

You know,
here when you can't pay the rent
the authorities of the rich
come and throw your things
in the street.
And you're left without roof
for the height of your dreams.
That's what it means, the word
eviction: loneliness
open to the sky, to
the eye that judges, misery.

This is the free world, they say.
What luck that you
no longer know
these liberties!

Damiana Murcia widow of Garcia
is very small,

you know,

and must be very cold.

How great her loneliness!

You can't believe
how these injustices hurt.

They are the norm among us.
The abnormal is tenderness
and the hate of poverty.
And so today more than ever
I love your world,

I understand it,

I glorify

its cosmic pride.

And I ask myself:
Why do the old
suffer among us so,
if age comes to us all
one day?
But the worst of it all

is the habit.

Man loses his humanity,
The enormous pain of another
is no longer his concern

and he eats
and he laughs

and he forgets everything.

I don't want these things
for my country.
I don't want these things
for anyone.
I don't want these things
for anyone in the world.

And I say I

because pain
should carry
an indelible aura

This is the free world, they say.

Look at me.
And tell your friends
my laughter
has turned grotesque
in the middle of my face.

Tell them I love their world.
They should make it beautiful.
And I'm very glad
they no longer know
injustices

so deep and painful.

― Otto René Castillo

[Judi Lynn]

81. It's good his words, at least, survived...

This will live for a very long time.

I hadn't heard of him, only heard through your introduction of facts of his life, and what happened to him at the hands of the US-backed terror by madmen.

Burned alive. Such a cowardly way to treat people they believe they hate due to their politics. Unbelievable.

Thank you for taking the time to share this information here. It gives us a view into this world we didn't have earlier.

They unleashed pure, non-stop hell on steroids in 1954.

[Catherina]

42. Shouts against sentence amid song.

Romina Ruiz-Goiriena ?@romireports 1m

Shouts against sentence amid song. #Guatemala is still divided. #GenocideGT

Here's another video of the song, with better audio

[Catherina]

43. At least a dozen national police enter... Gallery still singing 'aquí solo queremos ser humanos'

PlazaPública en Vivo ?@PzPenVivo 2m

Entró la policía nacional, de pie en el estrado, Al menos doce agentes. El público sigue cantando. #juiciogenocidio

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 1m

Fernando Lopez is here in the courtroom singing, "Vivir la vida, no morila/Live life, not die in it."

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 51s

Police have arrived to form an orange-vest wall by the judges bench; the public continues to sing.

PlazaPública en Vivo ?@PzPenVivo now

"Aquí no lloró nadie, aquí solo queremos ser humanos... " #OttoRenéCastillo http://www.literaturaguatemalteca.org/Otto.html

[Catherina]

44. Public is now singing "Solo pido a díos"... while waiting for Montt to be handed to police

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 1m

Public is now singing "Solo pido a díos"... while waiting for #RíosMontt to be handed over to the police.

[Judi Lynn]

67. Overwhelming. Just seeing what your post said was so intense.

Hope that Bible-thumping monster Rios-Montt heard the song clearly.

Wish both Mercedes Sosa and Violeta Parra had lived long enough to know about this!

Here is the translation of the lyrics for English without Spanish speakers:

http://lyricstranslate.com/en/Solo-le-pido-Dos-I-only-ask-God.html

[Catherina]

75. Powerful lyrics! Thanks for the link

I'm listening to it now. Shivers down my spine.

Something is a-changing

[Catherina]

45. Ixiles cheer. Victory. Priests and traditional leaders hold staffs high

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 4m

Ixiles cheer. Victory. Priests and traditional leaders hold staffs high. Clapping and cheers of victory.

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 3m

#GenocideGT courtroom is chanting "El Pueblo Ixil Está Presente!" The Ixil people are present!

Note, the Ixiles were wearing headphones for simultaneous translation to/from Spanish throughout the trial. None needed for all the singing now.

[Catherina]

46. “EL PUEBLO UNIDO JAMAS SERA VENCIDO”

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 5m

- “EL PUEBLO UNIDO JAMAS SERA VENCIDO”
("The People! United! Will Never Be Defeated!&quot

- “An applause for Judge Barrios!” Crowd is screaming JAZMIN! JAZMIN JAZMIN JAZMIN! She grins and salutes them. Waves hand high and smiles.

Ixiles women are chanting, clapping, cheering, pounding their feet in support of the judge

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 4m

#GenocideGT courtrm chanted "Yassmín! Yassmín!" To which she stood, extended her arms fully to the crowd, & then crossed her chest in a hug.

[Judi Lynn]

68. She doesn't know it but she has admirers around the world by now.

[center]

Some of the spectators brought red carnations in memory of the wartime victims.[/center]

[Catherina]

48. Ríos Montt is now being removed from the courtroom

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 4m

Orange wall of police stand between Ríos Montt and judges.

Renata Avila ?@avilarenata 5m

As expected, those who remained quiet during the trial, now are spreading hate speech and threats in #Guatemala social networks. Sad.

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 5m

#RíosMontt is now being taken away from the courtroom to be imprisoned in the penitentiary system of Guatemala.

Rios Montt Trial ?@RiosMonttTrial 5m

Judge Barrios informs gallery that the tribunal has finished its work, police just escorted #RiosMontt to prison #genocidioGT

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 6m

Judge: “The police have him now. The courts order has been fulfilled.” Crowd erupts into cheers: JUSTICIA JUSTICIA JUSTICIA

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 5m

Ixiles are now chanting in the #GenocideGT courtroom in Ixil.

NISGUA ?@NISGUA_Guate 5m

- Barrios: We appreciate the applause but we have only done our duty. More exuberant applause.

- The Ixiles in the audience stood & bowed to the #GenocideGT court

[Catherina]

49. “All the people here applauding, tomorrow you... bow your heads, your tails between your legs."

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 2m

Ríos Montt has left the building in the hands of the police, who have orders to take him directly to prison.

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 3m

Ríos Montt atty Garcia Gudiel: “All the people here applauding, tomorrow you will have to bow your heads, your tails between your legs.”

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 1m

Ríos Montt is most likely being taken to Matamoros prison here in Guatemala City.

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 38s

If I am not mistaken, he will be in same jail tonight as various young men & Xinka anti-mining activists detained under State of Siege.

Renata Avila ?@avilarenata 3m

@xeni No, Matamoros is the damn VIP prison http://www.plazapublica.com.gt/content/el-circulo-rojo … where President Portillo and those of Rosenberg murder are at.

[Catherina]

50. Rios Montt sent to VIP prison

Renata Avila ?@avilarenata 2m

As I suspected Rios Montt sent to VIP prison: http://www.lahora.com.gt/index.php/nacional/guatemala/actualidad/131409-cuartel-de-matamoros-carcel-de-seguridad-o-centro-social-vip … (ES) where former President Portillo awaits US extradition.

Renata Avila ?@avilarenata 33s

High Impact Cases have a special prison in #Guatemala: Matamoros. Ríos Montt will be jailed there. Rumours and reports say it´s a VIP prison

[Catherina]

51. Nobel Prize Winner Rigoberta Menchu. Weeping with joy at verdict "For years they said I was lying."

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 5m

Rigoberta Menchu: These are tears of joy. For years they said I was lying. Our experience has finally been vindicated

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 3m

Rigoberta Menchu. Weeping with joy at verdict.

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 2m

Juana Sanchez Toma, Ixil rape victim whom we interviewed for @newshour. “I dreamed of justice. And now here it is.”

[Judi Lynn]

69. Wonderful. So good she got to see this. n/t

[Catherina]

76. I will never ever forget how she was vilified. Even here on DU

there were lackeys of the 1% saying her stories were lies and picking them apart for any inconsistency they could find in the good tradition of lawyers defending a Nazi criminal.

[Judi Lynn]

83. Exactly, Catherina, and it's still so damned dirty in my memory.

Smug, pompous, sanctimonious, and you'd better believe it, hate-filled racism.

These people are trash with the ability to "speak." What a shame they have nothing worth hearing, not ever. Not by living beings.

I read that crap, myself, with curiosity. Can't imagine who would want to spend so much time attacking Rigoberta Menchu. Certainly not a man or a woman of any value.

[Judi Lynn]

89. Found a photo to add to this post:

[center]

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate winner Rigoberta Menchu,
right, hugs the relative of a victim of the country's
civil before the verdict is announced in the genocide
trial for Guatemala's former dictator Jose Efrain Rios
Montt In Guatemala City, May 10. AP photo [/center]
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/guatemalas-former-dictator-found-guilty-of-genocide-on-indigenous-people.aspx?pageID=517&nID=46677&NewsCatID=358

[Catherina]

52. Pic: Ixil women were weeping after the verdict and sentence were delivered

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 2m

Many of the Ixil women were weeping after the verdict and sentence were delivered.

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 46s

Indigenous leaders hold high their varas as crowd cheers, Justice!

[Catherina]

53. Fundacion Contra Terrorismo was filming Ixiles as they left court: threat/intimidation.

Xeni Jardin ?@xeni 8m

- Guatemalan reporters told me a man who works for the Fundacion Contra Terrorismo was filming Ixiles as they left court: threat/intimidation.

- Mood inside courtroom after verdict was euphoria, grief, hope among Ixiles and other victims; those who supported Ríos Montt are very angry.

- Even as the crowd sang and wept with joy, there was a man not with the press, filming them close, with clear purpose of threat.

- Fundacion Contra Terrorismo is credited with a series of recent publications that include a list of enemies of Guatemala; and their faces.

- The list is basically a hit list.

[Judi Lynn]

70. The right-wing NEVER gives up, always try to terrorize good people.

Hope their karma's just a heart beat away. It will come, no matter what or when.

[Catherina]

55. One more thing. Happy Mother's Day Guatemalan Indigenous Women

Last edited Fri May 10, 2013, 10:14 PM - Edit history (1)

I hope this is just the start of things because Rios Montt is just the tip of the iceberg.

The judge spoke of a reparations trial, which is only fair since 8 out of 10 indigenous people live in squalid poverty, but at my age, I no longer hold my breath.

Rios Montt was correct when he said this was a political show. Guatemala and the Obama administration want to overturn the Carter era congressional ban on sending weapons to Guatemala. The current government and the Obama administration made a deal that Rios Montt would be the sacrificial lamb to show Guatemala was just zipping along in improving its atrocious Human Rights record and the US Congress could then lift the ban without too much of an outcry from activists. The Guatemalan deal was that the current President wouldn't be implicated or mentioned in the trial. He was. Early on and quite forcefully. The trial was immediately shut down and only continued because of this courageous young female Judge Barrios.

So Rioss Montt, whose people litter Guatemala's political and business landscape was sent to a cushy jail and the Maya Ixils might get a few pennies in reparation.

This isn't justice yet.

Where are all his accomplices? Where is the Reagan administration? Where are all his US advisors? Where is School of the Americas, renamed but still as genocidal as ever? It was a US officer named Captain Jesse Garcia who trained them how to implement their sweep technique. One of the trainings was how to enter a room with 10 people quietly sitting around the dinner table and shoot them all. Where is this asshole?

A US Green Beret, Captain Jesse Garcia showed me how, under Rios Montt, he was training Guatemalan troops in the techniques of how to "destroy towns." (Allan Nairn, "Despite Ban, U.S. Captain Trains Guatemalan Military," Washington Post, October 21, 1982, page 1).

http://www.allannairn.org/2013/05/the-guatemala-genocide-case-testimony.html

Where are the US evangelical pastors and their congregations who funneled millions to him? Where's Pat Robertson?

Where are the US Senators who kept supporting him despite pleas from the Pope himself?

There were 259,000 slaughtered and at least twice that displaced.

No, no, this is not over yet. This was just a symbolic start or symbolic distraction. There's still a long, long way to go.


Ms. Caba Ijom told this reporter she was 8 years old when her entire family was killed by the Army in 1982. Soldiers then tied her hands and feet and threw her into a river, breaking her legs. "I survived," she said. Photo: Xeni Jardin

[Judi Lynn]

71. This information is totally credible. What a sickening shame.

The world will just have to outgrow these politicians, one way or another. This can't go on forever, even though it seems it has already.

Remarkable photos. You have been so thoughtful to share so much with DU. Thank you, Catherina.

[Judi Lynn]

73. Agence France-Presse: Ex-Guatemalan Ruler Found Guilty of Genocide

Ex-Guatemalan Ruler Found Guilty of Genocide
By Agence France-Presse on 10:26 am May 11, 2013.

Guatemala City. Former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt was found guilty of genocide and war crimes Friday in a landmark ruling stemming from massacres of indigenous people in his country’s long civil war.

Rios Montt thus became the first Latin American convicted of trying to exterminate an entire group of people, in a brief but particularly gruesome stretch of a war that started in 1960, dragged on for 36 years and left around 200,000 people dead or missing.

The 86-year-old was sentenced to 80 years in prison, although he vowed to appeal. He got 50 years for genocide and 30 years for war crimes.

“The defendant is responsible for masterminding the crime of genocide,” Judge Jazmin Barrios said. “The corresponding punishment must be imposed.” She said he was also guilty of war crimes.

The court, filled with victims and their relatives, erupted in applause and cheers.

More:
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/international/ex-guatemalan-ruler-found-guilty-of-genocide/

[Catherina]

77. NYT: " As the general tried to walk out a side door..."

As the general tried to walk out a side door, Judge Barrios shouted at him to stay where he was and called for security forces. An hour after the verdict and sentence were read, General Ríos Montt was escorted from the courtroom by a dozen police officers. He said he was ready to go to prison.

...

Wiping tears from his eyes, Antonio Caba, 41, an Ixil leader of the Mayan survivors’ group that first brought the case more than a decade ago, said the sentence had “broken impunity and achieved justice.”

“We showed them that we’re not communists,” said Mr. Caba, who was 11 when soldiers stormed his village and killed 95 men. “We are simply villagers.”

...

Adama Dieng, the United Nations special adviser on the prevention of genocide, said last month that the case was the first in which a former head of state had been indicted by a national tribunal on charges of genocide.

The “historical precedent,”and especially a guilty verdict, he said, could serve as an example to other countries “that have failed to hold accountable those individuals responsible for serious and massive human rights violations.”

...

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/11/world/americas/gen-efrain-rios-montt-of-guatemala-guilty-of-genocide.html?_r=1&

AMERICA ARE YOU LISTENING?

[Judi Lynn]

84. Strange cluster of men standing behind Rios-Montt, isn't it?

They may as well be wearing large signs telling the world who they are!

[center]

All purpose thugs![/center]
I wondered during the trial if what prompted Rios-Montt's lawyers to make such spectacular asses of themselves is the good possibility he has the ability to snuff out not only them but everyone they know if they failed to secure his release.

[Catherina]

90. I frankly fear for the judge, the plaintiff, and the witnesses now. and Allan Nairn...

and Allan Nairn, US journalist, is a dead man walking.

[Judi Lynn]

94. I believe it! Too much hatred, too much ego caught up in this,

too many still untried criminals, there, and here, who are going to want to get the "last word," or to reinforce the fear they want the people unable to escape.

[limpyhobbler]

87. Amazing news.

We should try not to give weapons to genocidal murderers.

I would think this could be viewed as an indictment of US policy during that era as well.

[Catherina]

91. That yes! And not giving weapons to genocidal murderers now or ever again.

But if Americans refuse to acknowledge, to honor the past with more than a tired, yawning "whoopsie', when we even notice, how will we ever change what's still going on in DC now?

[Catherina]

79. More Photos from yestereday (graphic intense)

For the first time in world history, a former head of state was not only tried for genocide and crimes against humanity in a national court, but found guilty of these charges. Former Guatemalan de facto head of state Jose Efrain Rios Montt, who ruled Guatemala from March 1982 to August 1983, was sentenced to 80 years of jail. Judge Jazmin Barrios declared that military scorched earth campaigns during that period systematically and repeatedly massacred the Ixil Mayan people and indiscriminate patterns of violence were shown. She concluded that Ríos Montt had both command authority and “full knowledge of what was happening and did nothing to stop it.”


Members of the Comité de Unidad Campesina (CUC) and Coordinación y Convergencia Nacional Maya Waqib ‘Kej hold a Mayan Ceremony outside the Supreme Court of Justice the morning before the final audience begins.


The courageous, courageous Judge Jazmin Barrios




Judge Carol Flores who tried to annul the trial and then, hours before a final verdict was given, tried to nullify all the testimony in Judge Barrios' proceedings



Ixil Mayan Indigenous authorities await sentencing.




1992 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Rigoberta Menchu.


Family members and supporters of the accused clap and yell: “long live the glorious armed forces of Guatemala!”


The Press Swarm that caused such chaos at the end


Defense attorneys Cesar Calderon (left) and Francisco Palomo listen to the Judge Barrios’ verdict as if they don't have a care in the world.


Rios Montt reacts to the guilty verdict... 80 years in jail – 50 for genocide and 30 for crimes against humanity.


As Rios Montt was trying to leave the courtroom through a side door, protected by a swarm of journalists in the way, Judge Jazmin Barrios orders the apprehension of Rios Montt as she stands along with judges Patricia Bustamante (left) and Pablo Xitumul.


1992 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Rigoberta Menchu (right) embraces an Ixil woman as the crowd reacts to the guilty verdict.


Human rights activist Marylena Bustamante holds a photo of her detained-disappeared brother Emil Bustamante. Emil was still seen alive in a military cell on March 23, 1982, the day the coup d’etat placed Rios Montt in power. Emil’s remains are yet to be found.


Benjamin Manuel Jeronimo, President of the wartime victims organization Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR), plaintiff organization in the case.


Reactions outside the courtroom.


Human rights activists Sandra Moran (left) and Lolita Chavez embrace.


Ixil women clap and dance in euphoric joy as the chant “we won! we beat him!”


Ana Lainez, indigenous mayor of Nebaj, raises her baton as the Ixil Mayan people exit the courtroom and march through the aptly called Plaza of the Human Rights.


Judge Barrios declared, “There cannot be peace without justice in Guatemala.” She reiterated that genocide has affected all Guatemalans and urged the Public Prosecutors office to investigate and indict others responsible for genocide.


Photos taken from http://www.mimundo.org/2013/05/11/2013-05-10-former-head-of-state-rios-montt-guilty-of-genocide/

Professionals wanting to license these for use, please contact James Rogriguez, a courageous, independent freelance photographer who uses his camera for justice.

[Judi Lynn]

93. These photos are priceless. Glad, also, for the Judge Flores photo,

to finally get a good look at the ringer who tried to destroy the chance justice might finally be served through this trial.

Hope she takes the time to regret what she tried to do.

The other photos are absolute treasures.

[flamingdem]

82. Thanks for the thread! nt

[Catherina]

92. It is, as always, my pleasure. And thank you for reading it