Efraín Ríos Montt

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Efraín Ríos Montt in court
Student protest rally in Guatemala City 2006. On the banner, Ríos Montt is equated with Adolf Hitler .

José Efraín Ríos Montt [ efɾaˈin ˈri.os ˈmont ] (born June 16, 1926 in Huehuetenango , Guatemala , † April 1, 2018 in Guatemala City ) was the dictatorial president of Guatemala from March 23, 1982 to August 8, 1983 . Ríos Montt was sentenced to 80 years in prison on May 10, 2013 for genocide and crimes against humanity . This makes him the first politician to be convicted by a local court of genocide in his own country. The verdict was overturned on May 20, 2013 by the Guatemalan Constitutional Court due to procedural errors and a new hearing was ordered.

Origin and family

Efraín Ríos Montt was born in Huehuetenango as one of twelve children of the landowner Hermógenes Ríos Castillo (1896-1954) and the Consuelo Montt. His siblings include the Catholic Bishop Mario Enrique Ríos Montt .

Efraín Ríos Montt was married to María Teresa Sosa Ávila, with whom he had three children: Adolfo Homero, Luis Enrique and Zury Mayté. The two sons also embarked on a military career. Homero was a military doctor and died in 1984 at the age of 30 in a helicopter crash in the Peten department . Enrique was among other things head of the finance department of the Ministry of Defense and head of the National Defense Staff before he resigned with the rank of general. Zury was a member of the Guatemalan Parliament from 1996 to 2012 and a presidential candidate for the VIVA party in 2015. On November 20, 2004, she was married for the fourth time to Jerry Weller ( Republican Party , Illinois ), then an influential member of the United States’s Latin American policy . A planned renewed presidential candidacy of Zury Ríos in the 2019 presidential election was prohibited by the Constitutional Court of Guatemala on May 14, 2019.

Military career

Efraín Ríos Montt (around 1960)

In 1943, Ríos Montt joined the Guatemalan army as a military policeman and was a cadet at the Escuela Politécnica military academy from 1946 , which he graduated in 1950 as an infantry officer and road construction engineer. He then attended the Latin American Training Center in Fort Gulick in the extraterritorial canal zone of Panama , which later became the School of the Americas . After his return to Guatemala, he was initially a trainer and company commander at the Escuela Politécnica and was then employed as a company commander in the Quiché department. From 1963 he was a member of the Mariscal Zavala Brigade, of which he was appointed commander in 1967. From 1970 he headed the Escuela Politécnica . In January 1973 he was promoted to Brigadier General Chief of the Army General Staff. Only a few months later he resigned from the military in order to run for president.

Political career before the presidency

After his departure from the military, Ríos Montt stood in the presidential elections in March 1974 as a candidate for the National Opposition Front made up of Democracía Cristiana Guatemalteca (DCG), Frente Unida de la Revolución (FUR) and Partido Revolucionario Auténtico (PRA) against the candidate of the governing parties General Kjell Eugenio Laugerud García . According to official information, Ríos Montt was defeated, but he accused the governing parties of electoral fraud and declared himself the winner. Although there is strong evidence that he was right, he was unable to prevail and was appointed military attaché at the Guatemalan embassy in Madrid by the new president to keep him out of Guatemalan politics.

During his time in Madrid, Ríos Montt suffered from alcohol problems, which he overcame by turning to the Pentecostal movement . After his return to Guatemala in 1978 he left the Catholic Church and became a member and later also preacher of the Pentecostal Church El Verbo , a branch of the evangelical network Gospel Outreach based in California . This move had a major impact on his political style and especially his rhetoric during and after his presidency.

Presidency

Efraín Ríos Montt came to power in a coup in March 1982 . The disregard for military hierarchies and the one-sided promotion of the military who were close to the Gospel Outreach Church ultimately led to the dismissal of Montts in August 1983 by rival military officers for "insanity". Many thousands of people, including many Ixil , were murdered under Ríos Montt's rule . About half of the massacres committed by the military and paramilitaries during the 36-year Guatemalan civil war occurred during the reign of Ríos Montt. This is the conclusion reached by the Truth Commission Comisión para el Esclarecimiento Histórico , set up after the end of the civil war in 1996 .

Montt's rule was shaped by an evangelical- fundamentalist ideology, Montt himself appeared regularly as a preacher on local television. His supporters included not only the US government, but also right-wing extremist television preachers such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson , on whose values ​​Montt referred. This led to tension between the Catholic majority population and the evangelical leadership elite around Montt. Former Foreign Minister Edgar Gutierrez wrote, "Guatemala under Montt was like Cambodia under Pol Pot ".

Aboriginal massacre

During his tenure, the military carried out extensive operations against the Mayan Ixil indigenous people, mostly on the pretext that they were supporting the guerrillas . Around 400 villages were destroyed, over 1,100 residents were killed and over 1,400 women were raped. Soldiers cut open the bellies of pregnant women and dismembered their fetuses. In the 2013 trial of Ríos Montt, it was found that his government had used " starvation , mass murder , displacement , rape and air bombing as tactics to destroy the Ixil". The murders of infants and pregnant women were designed to destroy the Ixil, according to the court, and sexual violence was used as a means to destroy social cohesion.

Ríos Montt said of these counterinsurgency tactics in 1982, based on a quote from Mao Zedong ("the revolutionary swims among the people like a fish in water"):

“The guerrilla is the fish. The people are the sea. If you can't catch the fish, you have to drain the sea. "

- Ríos Montt

US government support

Because of its anti-communist orientation, Ríos Montt's government was militarily and politically supported by the US government under President Ronald Reagan , as was the military government in neighboring El Salvador . Reagan called Ríos Montt a man "of great personal integrity and commitment who faced the challenge of a brutal, foreign-backed guerrilla". Ríos Montt has "wrongly a bad reputation for human rights violations" (orig. "A bum rap for human rights violations"). In 1983, the US government ended an embargo on US military equipment that had been imposed by the Carter administration five years earlier for human rights violations . The reason was that Guatemala had made progress under Ríos Montt in the field of human rights.

The 1999 report of the Truth Commission (Guatemala: Memory of Silence) showed that the United States had supported the various military rulers of the country, in some cases massively, for several decades, despite knowledge of their crimes. Thereupon President Bill Clinton turned to the people of Guatemala in 1999: It was wrong of the USA to support the "military and various secret services" of Guatemala, which had participated in human rights violations and the "violent and widespread repression".

Political career after the civil war

From 1994 to 1995 Ríos Montt was President of Parliament in the Congress of the Republic of Guatemala after the victory of the Republican Front (FRG) he founded . In the presidential election in November 2003, he ran as a candidate, but was unsuccessful. His candidacy became possible after the Guatemalan Constitutional Court ruled that the constitutional exclusion of former coup leaders from the right to stand as president did not apply to Ríos Montt. The reason for the decision was that the constitution had only been adopted after Ríos Montt's reign.

Criminal trials

In the spring of 2004 a judge in Guatemala City sentenced Ríos Montt to house arrest following a trial for manslaughter and conspiracy. General a. D. accused the judiciary of being responsible for the death of journalist Héctor Ramírez . He died of a heart attack on the brink of a violent rally by Ríos Montt supporters in June 2003. On July 7, 2006, Ríos Montt's arrest warrant was issued.

The First Criminal Court ( Tribunal Primero de Sentencia Penal, Narcoactividad y Delitos Contra el Ambiente ) opened a case against Ríos Montt on January 26, 2012 in Guatemala City for genocide and crimes against humanity. It concerns eleven massacres with 1,171 murdered people and 1,485 women raped. The events are said to have occurred in the Maya communities of San Juan Cotzal , San Gaspar Chajúl and Santa María Nebaj in the province of Quiché between 1982 and 1983 in the course of the army operations Victoria 82 and Firmeza 83 . Ríos Montt “designed, planned, approved and monitored” these crimes. On May 10, 2013, he was sentenced to a total of 80 years in prison for genocide and crimes against humanity .

Human rights activists had hailed the verdict against Ríos Montt as historic. Never before had a former head of state been convicted of genocide by a court in his own country.

However, the Constitutional Court of Guatemala overturned the judgment issued on May 10, 2013 on May 20 due to legal procedural errors. Defense rights have been curtailed. It ordered the process to be repeated from April 19. Ríos Montt's lawyers had lodged several complaints during the trial, including in their opinion not all witnesses had been heard. They had appeal filed. The Constitutional Court granted the defense's motions with a narrow vote of three to two judges' votes (Judge Gloria Patricia Porras Escobar and Judge Mauro Roderico Chacón Corado).

In Guatemala itself and in several other Central American countries such as Nicaragua and Honduras , demonstrations broke out in the days following over the overturning of the sentence. In Honduras, people demonstrated in front of the Guatemalan embassy in the capital Tegucigalpa . They carried banners that read "The peoples of Central America have condemned Ríos Montt" and "No forgetting, no forgiveness - Ríos Montt to prison".

In 2015, the court ruled that a new trial should begin in January 2016, but in view of Ríos Montt's health, ruled out a prison sentence from the outset. In October 2017, the closed-door procedure was resumed. Doctors had certified Ríos Montt dementia so that he did not have to appear in court in person.

When Efraín Ríos Montt died at home on April 1, he was under house arrest.

See also

literature

  • Amnesty International, International Secretariat: Guatemala. Massive extrajudicial executions in rural areas under the government of General Efraín Ríos Montt ( Amnesty International special briefing series ). London 1982.
  • Amnesty International, International Secretariat: Guatemala. Letters from Amnesty International to the government of Guatemalan president Efraín Ríos Montt (AMR 34/25/83) . London 1983.
  • Virginia Garrard-Burnett: Terror in the land of the Holy Spirit. Guatemala under General Efraín Ríos Montt, 1982–1983 . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2010, ISBN 978-0-19-537964-8 .
  • Condenado por genocidio. Sentencia condenatoria en contra de José Efraín Ríos Montt (fragments) . F&G Editores, Guatemala City 2013, ISBN 978-9929-552-71-5 (contains the most important parts of the judgment of the Tribunal Primero de Sentencia Penal, Narcoactividad y Delitos Contra el Ambiente of May 10, 2013, the judgment of the Corte de Constitucionalidad and the special votes of May 20, 2013).

Web links

Commons : Efraín Ríos Montt  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Guatemala's dictator sentenced to 80 years in prison. Die Zeit, May 11, 2013, accessed on May 15, 2019 .
  2. ↑ 80 years imprisonment for ex-dictator Rios Montt - news.ORF.at, May 11, 2013
  3. ↑ a b US-backed Guatemalan former dictator gets life for genocide. In: Russia Today . May 11, 2013; Archived from the original on June 30, 2013 ; accessed on March 9, 2018 .
  4. ↑ a b Guatemala: Court overturns judgment against ex-dictator Montt. Spiegel online, May 21, 2013
  5. ↑ Una familia con muchos tentáculos. In: Prensa Libre. November 19, 2001, Retrieved October 16, 2017 (Spanish).
  6. ↑ Un hijo de Ríos Montt muere al estrellarse su helicóptero en Guatemala. In: El Pais. July 17, 1984, Retrieved October 16, 2017 (Spanish).
  7. ↑ Zury Ríos sería candidata de VIVA. In: Prensa Libre. April 15, 2015, Retrieved October 11, 2017 (Spanish).
  8. ^ The Congressman and the Dictator's daughter. (No longer available online.) In: Chicago Reader. August 25, 2006, archived from the original on August 30, 2006 ; accessed on October 11, 2017 (English).
  9. ↑ Guatemala ex-dictator's daughter Zury Ríos barred from presidency. BBC News, May 14, 2019, accessed May 14, 2019 .
  10. ↑ a b CIDOB - Barcelona Center for International Affairs: Efrain Rios Montt. In: Biografías Líderes Políticos. February 10, 2016, Retrieved October 16, 2017 (Spanish).
  11. ↑ Ricardo Bendaña Perdomo: Ella es lo que nosotros somos y mucho más. Retrieved October 16, 2017 (Spanish).
  12. ^ Joel Morales Cruz: Histories of the Latin American church. A handbook . Fortress Press, Minneapolis 2014, ISBN 978-1-4514-6564-8 , p. 364.
  13. ^ Peter Gaupp, San José de Costa Rica: Efraín Ríos Montt in court. In: nzz.ch. February 1, 2013, accessed October 14, 2018 .
  14. ↑ a b Memory of Silence. Report of the Commission for Historical Clarification.
  15. ^ Guatemalan Church Fights Evangelical's Rise - The New York Times
  16. ^ Efrain Rios Montt, former Guatemalan military dictator charged with genocide, dies at 91 - The Washington Post
  17. ^ Profiles: Guatemala's Efrain Rios Montt. BBC, May 10, 2013
  18. ↑ a b Cecibel Romero: Former dictator under house arrest. In: The daily newspaper . January 27, 2012, accessed January 30, 2012 .
  19. ↑ Tim Johnson: Guatemala court gives 80-year term to ex-dictator Rios Montt. In: The Miami Herald . May 10, 2013, archived from the original on June 29, 2013 ; accessed on March 9, 2018 .
  20. ^ A b Guatemala: Bill Clinton's Latest Damn-Near Apology Mother Jones , March 16, 1999
  21. ^ The American Presidency Project. Remarks in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, Following a Meeting With President Jose Efrain Rios Montt of Guatemala. 4th December 1982
  22. ↑ Reagan ignores rights violations. The Lakeland Ledger, December 7, 1982
  23. ↑ As Rios Montt Trial Nears End, a Look Back at US Role in Guatemala's Civil War. PBS Newshour, May 10, 2013
  24. ↑ Jillian Blake: Should domestic courts prosecute genocide? Examining the trial of Efraín Ríos Montt . In: Brooklyn journal of international law , ISSN  0740-4824 , Vol. 39 (2014), pp. 563-612.
  25. ^ Former US-Backed Guatemalan Dictator Found Guilty of Genocide in Historic Trial . Retrieved May 11, 2013.
  26. ↑ a b repealed against Guatemala's ex-dictator. drradio.de, May 21, 2013
  27. ↑ Alicia Robinson: Challenges to Justice at Home. The Domestic Prosecution of Efrain Rios Montt . In: International criminal law review , vol. 16 (2016), pp. 103-133.
  28. ↑ Court overturns judgment against Ríos Montt . RP online, May 21, 2013.
  29. ↑ Guatemala: Protest against the lifting of the Montt judgment . stern.de, May 25, 2013.
  30. ↑ Rick Kearns:Closed genocide trial for former Guatemalean President in 2015 . ( Memento of the original from March 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Indian Country Today , September 15, 2015, accessed September 26, 2015.
  31. ^ Catholic News Agency , October 12, 2017.
  32. ↑ ORF, Ö1-Radio, Mitternachtsjournal, April 2, 2018, midnight
  33. ↑ Guatemala's ex-dictator Rios Montt, according to lawyer tot orf.at, April 1, 2018, accessed April 1, 2018.
predecessor Office successor
Fernando Romeo Lucas García President of Guatemala
March 23, 1982–8. August 1983 		Óscar Humberto Mejía Víctores
personal data
SURNAME Ríos Montt, Efraín
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ríos Montt, José Efraín (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Guatemalan President (1982-1983)
DATE OF BIRTH June 16, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Huehuetenango
DATE OF DEATH April 1, 2018
Place of death Guatemala