Photos: Throughout Latin America, protests demand justice for Guatemala after genocide trial overtur [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Photos: Throughout Latin America, protests demand justice for Guatemala after genocide trial overturned

Xeni Jardin at 12:22 pm Sat, May 25, 2013



Protesters in Guatemala and other Latin American countries gathered on Friday to denounce the Guatemalan Constitutional Court's recent decision to overturn the genocide trial and guilty verdict of Ríos Montt. About 1,500 people, mostly indigenous Maya from Guatemala, gathered in Guatemala City. They marched along what posters described as the "Route of Impunity," from the Supreme Court where the ex-General was convicted on May 10 and sentenced to 80 years in jail, to the Constutional Court which threw out the trial ten days later.

Photos from the Guatemala City march below, along with images from Nicaragua, Honduras, and Mexico, which were among the other countries where protests took place. Also below, snapshots from a pro-Ríos Montt protest that took place today in a suburb of Guatemala City: about 15 people gathered to denounce Communism and terrorism, and chant that "In Guatemala, there was no genocide."


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Protesters in Guatemala City, Friday May 24, 2013. Photo: Daniel Hernández-Salazar; more in this Facebook album.[/font]

Also on Friday, former Guatemalan president Alfonso Portillo was extradited by the Guatemalan government to the United States, where he is wanted on allegations he laundered some $70 million through US banks.

Portillo ruled Guatemala from 2000-2004, and was elected on the platform of the FRG party, which Ríos Montt founded and led.

In 2010, the United States filed charges against him for what a prosecutor called “converting the office of the Guatemalan presidency into his personal A.T.M.”

More:
http://boingboing.net/2013/05/25/throughout-latin-america-prot.html