Efrain Rios Montt
Dictator in Guatemala
Biographical Profile
José Efraín Ríos Montt (born June 16, 1926) is a Guatemalan politician who was President of Guatemala from 1982 to 1983. An army general, his time in office was marked by the Guatemalan Civil War. Years later, he served as president of Congress.
A general in the Guatemalan Army, Ríos Montt came to public office through a Coup d'etat on March 23, 1982. In turn, he was overthrown by his Defense Minister,Oscar Humberto Mejia Victores, in another coup d'état on August 8, 1983.
Under Rios Montt’s dictatorship Guatemala experienced one of its bloodiest periods of antiguerrilla violence. Over 1 million Mayan peasants were forced to relocate to army-run villages in the militarys attempt to damage support of the gurrillas. The army killed more than 100,000 civilians and destroyed more than 40 villages and more than 40,000 people were reported to have “disappeared”.
Efrain Rios Montt trial
Jose Efrain Rios Montt, and Jose Mauricio Rodriguez Sanchez, his then chief of military intelligence, are on trial in Guatemala City for genocide and crimes against humanity. The charges arise from systematic massacres of the country’s indigenous population carried out by Guatemalan troops and paramilitary forces during this phase of the country’s long and brutal civil war, and the related mass forced displacement. As I said earlier in my smore, over 100.000 people were killed during the civil war. The trial is still going on, Jose Efrain Rios Montt can get the death penalty but people expect him to get around 80 years in prison.