Ex-dictator to run for president

[Aidoneus]

possible alternate title: "Ex-dictator to run for president; or, 'why some mass graves don't matter'"

Ex-dictator to run for president
Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles
Saturday July 19, 2003
The Guardian

A former dictator who is facing charges of genocide will be running for president of Guatemala this year. This week, a court in Guatemala City ruled that retired general Efrain Rios Montt, accused of responsibility for tens of thousands of deaths during the 1980s civil war, was entitled to stand for office.

The leader of a military coup in 1982, Gen Rios Montt ruled Guatemala with an iron fist. A born-again evangelical Christian, he held power for 16 months before being ousted. It was during this period than many of the worst atrocities in Guatemala's 36- year civil war were committed. His "civil defence" patrols conscripted indigenous Indians and killed those who resisted. Whole villages were slaughtered if they were thought to be hostile or to have assisted leftwing guerrillas.

Although he has long since returned to politics as president of the congress, until this week Gen Rios Montt, 77, had been excluded from standing for the presidency, and the constitutional court had upheld that ban. But two new members of the court, both close to the current president, Alfonso Portillo, have reversed that stance in a 4-3 vote, opening the way for him to run on November 9.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1001293,00.html

[Aidoneus]

1. a couple more..

Guatemala: Steps further towards its dark past
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR340432003

Back to the Future in Guatemala/The Return of General Ríos Montt
http://www.counterpunch.org/stclair07162003.html