7-21-2003
moreorless
José Efraín Ríos Montt AKA 'The General'.

Country: Guatemala.

Kill tally: 100,000.

Background: Guatemala is invaded and colonised by the Spanish early in the 16th Century. The country proclaims its independence in 1821, but real reform is not achieved until 1944 when a civilian is elected president. However, the reformist government is overthrown by a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) backed coup d'état in mid-1954.

An outbreak of protests against the now military-aligned government in March and April of 1962 marks the beginning a 34-year civil war between leftist guerrilla groups and the government for control of the country. The Mayan peasants are caught in the middle and suffer the brunt of the violence and killings. More background.

Mini biography: Born 16 June 1926.

He pursues a career in the Guatemalan military, rising to the rank of general. His training includes a period at the notorious US Army School of the Americas (SOA). Dubbed the "school of assassins" and the "school of coups" at the time, the SOA provides instruction in counterinsurgency strategies and tactics, psychological warfare, torture and assassination. A "born-again" Protestant, Ríos Montt also advocates a robust, fundamentalist faith and cultivates ties with US Christian fundamentalists.

1962 - A welter of guerilla groups emerge out of the government's crackdown on its opponents, including the Revolutionary Movement November 13 (MR-13), the Guatemala Workers Party (PGT), the Rebel Armed Forces (FAR), the Guerrilla Army of the Poor (EGP), and the Organisation of People in Arms (ORPA). The civil war goes into full swing when the groups begin to engage in armed conflict.

The army doubles its troop numbers, establishes control over the police, and develops an intelligence network to gather information on the guerrilla groups and their supporters. The 'Kaibiles', the army's special counter insurgency force, proclaims "the Kaibil is a killing machine".

1965 - The first massacre of civilians by the army is reported in the eastern region of the country.

1966 - The army launches a major campaign against the guerrillas operating in the countryside, forcing them to retreat to Guatemala City. Reorganisation and an uneasy consolidation of the guerrillas follow. Their subsequent kidnapping and assassination campaign claims many leading figures, including, in 1968, US ambassador John Gordon Mein. The German ambassador, Karl von Spreti, is kidnapped and murdered in 1970.

The conflict takes another sinister turn when unofficial "death squads" begin to emerge. Using civilian informers and lists prepared by military intelligence, the squads target alleged "subversives" for elimination. Going under such names as 'National Organised Action Movement', 'New Anti-communist Organisation', 'Anti-communist Council of Guatemala', 'Eye for an Eye', and 'Jaguar of Justice', they are tolerated by the government and receive clandestine military support.

In Guatemala City the 'Judicials', the National Police and the Treasury Police, become the principal agents of state terror, and will remain so for almost 20 years.

Between 1966 and 1970 a reported 10,000 civilians, most of whom are Mayans, are killed in the army campaigns.

The terror continues into the 1970s, with guerrilla and political leaders along with trade union and student activists being targeted for murder or "disappearance". It is estimated that the military campaigns result in a least 50,000 deaths during the decade. Many guerrillas flee the country, some to Cuba to receive military training and support from Fidel Castro's communist regime.

1974 - Ríos Montt stands as a candidate for the Christian Democratic Party in the presidential elections. He wins the majority of votes but the results are not officially recognised, with the military's preferred candidate taking the presidency in an election widely believed to be fraudulent.

Following the election, Ríos Montt is sent into de facto exile in Spain as a military attaché.

1977 - The US suspends military aid to Guatemala following an upsurge in death squad activity against the guerrillas and Mayan peasants.

Ríos Montt meanwhile returns to Guatemala, joins a US-aligned, right-wing fundamentalist church, and begins to work as a religion teacher.

1978 - The Peasant Unity Committee (CUC) is formed. Advocating land reform and respect for the human rights of the Mayans, the committee becomes the largest peasant organisation in the country.

1980 - In January a small group of Mayan peasants join with student activists and occupy the Spanish embassy in Guatemala City to protest the repression of their people. The resulting standoff with the surrounding government forces ends abruptly when the building is burnt to the ground, killing all the protesters, including the father of future Nobel Peace Prize laureate Rigoberta Menchú Tum, and all of the embassy staff except the ambassador, who is badly injured. Thirty nine die.

1981 - The guerrillas widen their campaign across the country, occupying municipal capitals, sabotaging installations, blocking roads and conducting executions. Activity in the capital also intensifies, with police stations coming under attack and sabotage becoming widespread.

The army sets up and sponsors civilian vigilante groups, the so-called 'Civilian Civil Defence Patrols', throughout the country to keep so-called "subversives" in check. The military and patrols kill about 11,000 people in response to the growing antigovernment activity by the guerrillas. The US begins to resupply the Guatemalan army, claiming it is the leftist groups who are perpetuating the violence, aided and abetted by Cuba.

1982 - After a military coup on 23 March, Ríos Montt is asked by the coup leaders to take control of the country. A three-member junta is formed, the constitution annulled, parliament dissolved, political parties suspended, and the election law cancelled. In June Ríos Montt disbands the junta and assumes the presidency, ruling as a dictator.

Meanwhile, the various guerrilla factions unit to form the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG). They denounce the Ríos Montt government and step up the attacks.

The government imposes a state of siege, expanding the army's anti-guerrilla activities in the countryside under military plan 'Victory 82', a "scorched earth" policy of terror. In October Ríos Montt orders the 'Archivos' intelligence unit to apprehend, hold, interrogate and dispose of suspected guerrillas as they see fit.

The 14 months of Ríos Montt's rule become the bloodiest in Guatemala's history since the invasion of the country by the Spanish some 400 years earlier. Mayans suspected of sympathising with the guerillas are targeted, suffering mass killings and atrocities, including the rape of women and girls and torture. Four hundred and forty Mayan villages are razed. Crops and livestock are destroyed. The insurgency is contained but with a human cost of an estimated 70,000 lives.

As the terror reigns, Ríos Montt broadcasts weekly sermons on morality. His regime and policies are supported by the US government and US-based, right-wing religious groups. US president Ronald Reagan is reported as saying that Ríos Montt is a "a man of great personal integrity" who is "getting a bum rap on human rights".

1983 - The state of siege in Guatemala is lifted, political activity is once again allowed and elections scheduled. The US reinstates military training assistance in January, authorising the sale of US$6 million of military hardware. However, on 8 August Ríos Montt is ousted in another military coup.

It is estimated that during the period of Montt's rule about 100,000 civilians have been killed or "disappeared". During the period 1981 to 1983 between 500,000 and 1.5 million have been displaced, fleeing to other regions within the country or seeking safety abroad.

"When I arrived in the government, we began a change in the state," Montt later says. "We realised that it shouldn't be the state of a single boss, the state of a regent, the state of a king, but a state that guarantees the rule of law, a state that serves."

Referring to the genocide that occurred during his rule, he says, "I can't deny anything, nor can I corroborate or prove anything. I'm at an impasse. ... If there is proof that shows that I am responsible, then I'm going to wind up a prisoner, because I do not want by any means to evade my responsibility."

1987- Guatemala begins to move towards peace when representatives of the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) and the government establish a dialogue during a meeting in Spain. The government also creates the National Reconciliation Commission. However, both sides continue to engage in armed actions.

1991 - Jorge Serrano Elías, a right-wing businessman and close ally to Ríos Montt is elected president in January. Ríos Montt had wanted to run for the post but is prevented by a law forbidding former dictators and those who participated in coups from standing as presidential candidates.

1992 - Guatemalan human rights activist Rigoberta Menchú is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "in recognition of her work for social justice and ethno-cultural reconciliation based on respect for the rights of indigenous peoples".

Meanwhile, in October the government and representatives of Guatemala's large exiled population sign an agreement defining the conditions for their collective return from Mexico. The first group of refugees returns on 20 January the following year.

1994 - UN-moderated peace talks begin between the Guatemalan government and the URNG. An early outcome is the signing of an accord to establish a Commission for Historical Clarification (CEH) in order "to clarify with objectivity, equity and impartiality, the human rights violations and acts of violence connected with the armed confrontation that caused suffering among the Guatemalan people".

In August a new parliament is elected in Guatemala. It is controlled by the right-wing Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG), headed by Ríos Montt, and the centre-right National Advancement Party (PAN).

1995 - The URNG declares a ceasefire. In April the Guatemalan government and the URNG sign the 'Accord on the Identity and Rights of Indigenous Peoples' acknowledging that the issue "of identity and rights of the indigenous peoples constitutes a point of fundamental and historic importance for the present and future of Guatemala."

The indigenous peoples "have been particularly subjected to levels of factual discrimination, exploitation and injustice because of their origin, culture and language ... and suffer unequal and unjust treatment," the accord says.

The accord commits the government to act to end civil rights abuses against the indigenous population by recognising ethnic discrimination as a crime, publicising the rights of the indigenous peoples through education, the media and other means, and opening the legal system to indigenous communities.

The government will also sign the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples being developed by the UN and implement constitutional reforms to establish indigenous cultural and linguistic rights. Communities will be given the right to "change the name of places where they live, when it be so decided by the majority of its members".

However, the accord will not take effect until a final peace pact is signed. The accord also fails to meet Indian and URNG demands for ancestral territory, local political autonomy and measures to alleviate the extreme poverty of Indian groups.

On 23 June the government and the URNG chart the road to lasting peace when they sign the 'Accord of Oslo'. The accord outlines measures for widespread social reforms, including the drafting and approval of a national reconciliation law, and activates the Commission for Historical Clarification (CEH).

The commission has the backing of the UN as well as governments from around the world and international non-government organisations. It will spend four years interviewing survivors and identifying and examining gravesites. It will receive thousands of testimonies, speak to former heads of state and the high command of both the army and the guerrillas, and read thousands of pages of documents submitted by non-government organisations. It hopes that by establishing the truth of the violence committed during the civil war it will aid the process of reconciliation.

Meanwhile, Ríos Montt again tries to run for the national presidency but is again prevented by the law forbidding former dictators and those who participated in coups from standing as candidates.

1996 - Peace comes at last on 29 December when the URNG and government sign the 'Accord for Firm and Lasting Peace', ending the 34-year civil war, the longest in Latin America's modern history. The Civilian Civil Defence Patrols are disbanded.

1998 - Bishop Juan Gerardi Conedera presents the Roman Catholic Church's Recovery of Historical Memory ('Never Again') Report detailing the Guatemalan army's involvement in the atrocities of the civil war and attributing about 90% of human rights violations committed during the conflict to the state forces. Two days later, on 26 April, the bishop is beaten to death.

In 2001 three army officers and a Roman Catholic priest are brought to trial for the murder. Despite intimidation of prosecutors, witnesses and judges involved in the case the three are convicted. The officers are sentenced to 30 years jail each. The priest receives a 20-year sentence. The identities of those responsible for issuing the order to kill the bishop are never revealed.

Ríos Montt is meanwhile reelected for a third term as head of the FRG on 19 June 1998.

On 29 December, the president of Guatemala asks for forgiveness for the human rights violations committed by the military and its operatives during the civil war. The call follows a more limited appeal for forgiveness made by the URNG on 19 February.

1999 - In May the Commission for Historical Clarification (CEH) hands down its report. Titled 'Memory of Silence', the report finds that the army and the Civilian Civil Defence Patrols were responsible for 93% of the human rights abuses documented by the CEH, including 92% of the arbitrary executions and 91% of "forced disappearances". Eighty-five percent of all abuses are attributable to the army, and 18% to the patrols.

The guerrilla groups are held responsible for 3% of the human rights abuses, including 5% of the arbitrary executions and 2% of forced disappearances.

Of all the violations documented by the CEH, 91% were committed during the years 1978 to 1984.

"The majority of human rights violations occurred with the knowledge or by order of the highest authorities of the state," the report states.

"In consequence, the CEH concludes that agents of the state of Guatemala, within the framework of counterinsurgency operations carried out between 1981 and 1983, committed acts of genocide against groups of Mayan people which lived in the four regions analysed."

The report documents 42,275 victims of human rights violations and acts of violence connected with the civil war, including 23,671 victims of arbitrary execution and 6,159 victims of forced disappearance. Eighty-three percent of the identified victims are Mayan, and 17% are Ladino (people of European decent). According to the CEH, these figures "are only a sample of the human rights violations and acts of violence connected with the armed confrontation".

"Combining this data with the results of other studies of political violence in Guatemala, the CEH estimates that the number of persons killed or disappeared as a result of the fratricidal confrontation reached a total of over 200,000," the report says.

"State terror was applied to make it clear that those who attempted to assert their rights, and even their relatives, ran the risk of death by the most hideous means. The objective was to intimidate and silence society as a whole, in order to destroy the will for transformation, both in the short and long term."

The report's recommendations to encourage "peace and national harmony in Guatemala" include the prosecution of those responsible for human rights abuses and the introduction of new socially responsible codes to govern the behaviour of the army, the intelligence forces, and the police.

Full copy of the report.

However, in a referendum held in May, the same month as the release of the CEH report, Guatemalans reject constitutional reforms granting rights to the Mayans and restricting the influence of the army.

In December Ríos Montt is elected president of the Guatemalan parliament. His daughter is deputy president of the parliament, his second son is head of finances for the army, and the foreign minister is a close Ríos Montt associate. The FRG also wins a majority of the parliamentary seats.

Alfonso Portillo, a member of the FRG and an ally of Ríos Montt, wins the post of national president. This had not been Portillo's first tilt at the presidency. In 1996 he had unsuccessfully campaigned on the slogan "Portillo the presidency, Ríos Montt the power".

On his role as president of the parliament, Ríos Montt will later say, "I make the laws of Congress, I approve the budget of Congress, so I already am (national) president."

Meanwhile, Rigoberta Menchú and Guatemalan human rights organisations petition the Spanish national court to hear a case against Ríos Montt and seven other Guatemalan military and civilian officials for genocide, state terrorism and torture. The court decides not to proceed, arguing that while there was strong evidence against the accused there is no reason why the case could not be heard in Guatemalan courts. However, members of the Guatemalan parliament, including Ríos Montt, are immune from prosecution by law.

2000 - In August Ríos Montt and 23 other parliamentary members of the FRG are charged with unlawfully altering a law covering alcoholic beverages to favour powerful Guatemalan businesses. On 5 March the following year the Guatemalan supreme court removes the immunity from prosecution covering Ríos Montt and the other accused and orders criminal proceedings against them to begin. However on 24 April 2001 the charges against Ríos Montt are dismissed.

Mayan organisations meanwhile demand compliance with the peace accords of 1996, including the redistribution of land and prosecution of war criminals. Subsequently, a Mayan leader is shot dead and threats to journalists and human rights workers increase.

2001 - Intimidation of human rights organisations, judges, prosecutors and Mayan citizens continues. At least 80% of the country's 11.5 million people live in poverty, 59% live in severe poverty, the average per capita income is only about US$1,000, and corruption and lawlessness is endemic.

Rumours begin to circulate that a coup to topple president Portillo is imminent and that it is being planned from within the FRG, which is still headed by Ríos Montt. It is also rumoured that the FRG will attempt to have the constitution changed to allow Ríos Montt to run for the presidency.

Meanwhile, the Guatemalan Centre for Legal Action on Human Rights launches a case in the Guatemalan courts against Ríos Montt for acts of genocide, claiming he had command responsibility for massacres committed in 11 villages during his dictatorship.

2002 - On 17 June about 8,000 former members of the Civilian Civil Defence Patrols formed by the army in 1981 and disbanded in 1996 stage a demonstration in the north of the country. The former militias are demanding that the government pay them about US$2,500 each for their service during the civil war (a demand that will be met the following year when Montt's FRG party pushes a plan through the parliament granting the former militias about US$660 each).

At the same time it is reported that the former militias have reactivated their intelligence-gathering network and remain loyal to Ríos Montt.

An atmosphere of fear and intimidation remains in the country. Prior to a visit to Guatemala by the Pope John Paul II in July several members of the country's Catholic Church, including a bishop, receive death threats. Human rights organisers are subjected to similar intimidation. Shots are fired at the courthouse where the appeals of the officers convicted of the murder of Bishop Juan Gerardi Conedera in 1998 are being heard.

On 3 September a trial commences of three former senior commanders of the presidential security and intelligence unit who are accused of instigating the 1990 murder of Guatemalan anthropologist Myrna Mack, a vocal critic of the military's mistreatment of rural indigenous communities.

The trial is the first in which prison terms are being sought for high-ranking officers implicated in crimes committed by the military during the civil war and is seen as an important test of Guatemala's judicial system. One of the accused, the retired colonel Juan Valencia, is subsequently found guilty of ordering the murder and is sentenced to 30 years in jail. The two other defendants are acquitted, although an attempt is launched to have their acquittals overturned in the court of appeal.

However, on 8 October human rights activists receive a blow when the convictions against three army officers and a Roman Catholic priest found guilty of the 1998 murder or Bishop Juan Gerardi Conedera are annulled by a Guatemalan appeals court.

The court orders a retrial, saying there were irregularities in the testimony of a key prosecution witness. All four of the accused will remain in jail until the retrial.

On 29 December president Portillo announces that the presidential guard will be reduced by 25% and that it will eventually be completely disbanded.

2003 - Intimidation of human rights activists continues. On 9 April an alliance of social groups issue a statement accusing the government of organising a string of burglaries and attacks which "together provide evidence of continuous pressure and systematic policies". The attacks are thought to be a response to the creation of a state commission to investigate civil rights abuses.

On 7 May a Guatemalan appeals court overturns the conviction of Juan Valencia, the retired colonel found guilty of ordering the murder of Myrna Mack in 1990, saying there was insufficient evidence to link him to the killing.

On 24 May the leaders of the ruling Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG) unanimously elect Montt as their candidate for a presidential election scheduled for 9 November, despite the constitutional ban on him running for the post.

Montt says he will challenge the constitution. The party's deputy says "it will not be a problem". "Ríos Montt will be Guatemala's next president," he says.

However, the US state department expresses misgivings about dealing with a government headed by Montt, with spokesman Richard Boucher saying, "Realistically, in light of Mr Ríos Montt's background, it would be difficult to have the kinds of relationship that we would prefer."

Polling conducted before his candidacy was confirmed suggests that Montt would have little chance of winning the election, with only 3.8% saying they would vote for the ex-dictator. When asked if they accepted his proposed nomination 78.8% of the 1,200 adults polled say no. Only 17.8% say yes.

Montt also faces more direct opposition and on 14 June is forced to flee a political rally in a highland town when he is set on by a crowd of Mayan Indians angry at his bid for the presidency.

On 14 July Guatemala's seven-member constitutional court rules 4-3 that Montt can contest the presidency. Rigoberta Menchú describes the decision as "a coup d'état". "The Republican Front usurped the court, which is supposed to be the wellspring of morality, legality and constitutionality," she says.

Comment: Guatemala, another proud episode in the Cold War fight against communism in Latin America, and with all the usual consequences - death, destabilisation, economic and social ruin, political polarisation, support for odious and brutal regimes. Guatemala, Nicaragua, Haiti, Chile, El Salvador, the list goes on. And all to combat a perceived "communist threat", to prevent another affront like the ascension of Fidel Castro in Cuba.

It all seems so pointless now, and would be if the toll of innocent civilian lives was not so high. Ríos Montt was not the only brutal despot to rule in Guatemala and half of the estimated 200,000 dead were murdered before and after his brief reign, but he was the worst, the most ruthless and unforgiving, despite his "born-again" Christian beliefs. Never trust a dictator, especially one that reads the Good Book.

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