Guatemala: Accused mass murderer Montt to run for congress

Image: anti-Montt grafitti in Guatemala City (2007, Xeni Jardin)

Former dictator José Efraín Ríos Montt, who is accused of having ordered the killings of more than 70,000 dissidents and indigenous peasants, has announced that he will run for congress this September. If his campaign continues and succeeds, the move would represent a major setback for an ongoing case against him in Spain, in which he is charged with crimes against humanity (he has so far evaded extradition). Why? Members of congress cannot be prosecuted unless a court suspends them from office.

Snip from AP item:

"I am certain and sure" of getting a seat in Congress, Rios Montt told a news conference. He ran for the presidency in 2004 and came in third.

A Guatemalan court is still considering whether to order the arrest of Rios Montt for crimes allegedly committed while he ran the country from 1982 to 1983. Rios Montt has denied any wrongdoing.

Rios Montt ruled during what was considered the bloodiest period of Guatemala's 1960-1996 civil war, in which 200,000, mostly Mayan Indians, were killed or disappeared. Spanish Judge Santiago Pedraz has issued warrants against Rio Montt and others on charges of genocide, torture, terrorism and illegal detention.

The case stems from charges levied in Spanish courts by Guatemalan Nobel Peace Prize Winner Rigoberta Menchu against five ex-military officials and three ex-government officials in the disappearance of Spanish priests and a fire at the Spanish Embassy in Guatemala City that killed Menchu's father and 36 others.

Here's a recent story in Guatemala's Prensa Libre newspaper: Link. Amnesty International has issued a statement on Montt's announcement here: Link. Related information: Link to killerfile, Link to Wikipedia entry, here's an excerpt:

Ríos Montt's ties with the United States military go back fifty years when he received training by the Pentagon. In 1950, Ríos Montt graduated as a cadet at the School of the Americas in the Panama Canal Zone, which at the time educated students in counterinsurgency tactics for the purposes of combating potential "communist" influence in the region.

In 1954, the young officer played a minor role in the successful CIA-organized coup against Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán, who was alleged to have embrace socialist ideologies largely as a result of his efforts to break the economic monopoly of the United Fruit Company, a US firm with strong ties to Washington.

Montt is also an ordained Pentecostal minister. His daughter Zury currently serves as a member of the Guatemalan congress, and is married to the American congressman Jerry Weller (R-IL).