Genocide trial of former Guatemala dictator begins

[Judi Lynn]

1. Call for justice opens Guatemala ex-leader trial

Call for justice opens Guatemala ex-leader trial
By SONIA PEREZ-DIAZ, Associated Press | March 19, 2013 | Updated: March 19, 2013 10:22pm

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — The first witness in the trial of Guatemala's former U.S.-backed dictator testified Tuesday that soldiers razed his village in 1982, killing dozens of his neighbors, tearing the hearts out of victims and setting fire to houses.

Nicolas Brito was the first of at least 150 witnesses expected to give their testimony in the trial of Gen. Efrain Rios Montt, the first Latin American strongman to be tried on genocide charges in his own country.

Brito, an indigenous Ixil who survived the army's attack on the village of Canaque in the town of Santa Maria Nebaja, says he escaped and watched as soldiers attacked his village.

"A lot of women died because they were preparing the dough (for tortillas) when soldiers arrived and they couldn't run," Brito said in Ixil through an interpreter. "The soldiers tore the victims' hearts out and put them on a little table, they piled them there."

More:
http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Call-for-justice-opens-Guatemala-ex-leader-trial-4367092.php