Top court sends Rios Montt trial to new judge

[Catherina]

3. "God is our attorney"

Where to go from here is the choice of the President, General Perez Molina, the institutional army and the death-squad oligarchs. It's a good bet that at this writing they have not yet reached a full decision.

On the one hand, by killing the case they get to revel in untouchability. They think they get to say, as their slogan goes, "In Guatemala there was no genocide," to hand out bumper stickers, like this morning, saying "I love the Guatemalan army," and to say, with Rios Montt's daughter, Zury: "God is our attorney."

...

In this case, the understanding all over Guatemala including inside the palace was that if Perez Molina allowed the hand-cleansing trial, the US -- at that time on Hillary Clinton's authority -- would respond with still more military/ "anti-terror"/ "anti-drug" aid.

The Americans thought they had a deal, but now they don't. Will the US just let it slide? They certainly might. For the US, the trial was just an ornament, something to point to and say, when needed: 'See? We're actually pro-human rights.'

...

... it was a nice cheap fillip, but now Perez Molina and co. have made things complicated.

http://www.allannairn.org/2013/04/if-enough-forces-weigh-in-trial-can.html