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| Former military strongman Efrain Rios Montt, President of Guatemala |
Over
600 massacres. Forced disappearances. Acts of genocide against
indigenous communities. These are the crimes the UN has documented that
took place during the civil war in Guatemala.
This
is the first time a former head of state has faced genocide charges
before a national court. It’s a significant step forward for efforts to
ensure accountability for the gravest human rights abuses.
 |
| Former head of military intelligence of Guatelama, José Mauricio Rodriguez |
This Tuesday, March 19, sees the scheduled start date for
the oral phase of the trial on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity
against Rios Montt and Rodriguez Sanchez. They are accused of being the
intellectual authors of the assassination of 1,771 indigenous Mayans of Ixil
ethnicity in the Quiche Department, the forced displacement of 29,000, and
sexual violations and torture, in massacres and violations perpetrated by the
Guatemalan military during Rios Montt’s 17-month rule between 1982 and 1983.
The trial is due to commence at 8:30 am local time at the
Supreme Court (Corte Suprema de Justicia). It will be held before a three-judge
panel of the First High-Risk Tribunal A (Tribunal Primero A de Mayor Riesgo).
Judge Yazmin Barrios, the President of the High-Risk Tribunal, will be the
chief judge on the panel, along with Judges Patricia Bustamante and Pablo
Xitumul.
The trial is scheduled to last at least 6 weeks.
The trial date is confirmed for Tuesday, March 19, but
had been uncertain, and changed, in recent weeks. On February 7, the trial date
was initially set for August 14, only to be advanced from August to March 19
two weeks later, on February 20. Further, on Saturday, March 9, it was widely
reported that an appellate court suspended the start date of the trial. On
March 11, the civil parties clarified that the trial date remained unchanged
from March 19, and that the appellate court had suspended only a separate
February 4 decision by Judge Angel Galvez, the judge overseeing a preliminary
phase of the trial.
Also, on March 12, the Constitutional Court resolved a
long-pending amparo appeal filed by the defense concerning the applicability of
a 1986 amnesty issued by General Mejia Victores, Rios Montt’s successor as de
facto president. The Constitutional Court ruled that the amparo was unfounded.
This historic trial results from complaints made more
than a decade ago in 2000 and 2001. Various factors impeded or delayed the
process for nearly a decade, a period in which there were virtually no
prosecutions initiated in connection with the internal armed conflict, despite
thousands of legal complaints pending or filed.
The trial has advanced in the last two years, and in
particular in the last year after Rios Montt stepped down from Congress and
lost his legal immunity from prosecution. In January 2011, Judge Patricia
Flores, a trial court judge overseeing some of the preliminary matters in the
case, ordered Rodriguez Sanchez to prison pending the prosecution. Rios Montt
was a sitting legislator at this time, but when his term ended in January 2012,
he also was formally accused by Judge Flores and placed under house arrest.
In the last year, the defense filed scores of amparo
challenges which delayed further steps in the trial. With some of the amparo
challenges still outstanding—including the aforementioned appeal to the
Constitutional Court with regard to the 1986 Mejia Victores amnesty—Judge
Galvez determined on January 28 that there is a prima facie case sufficient to
justify a trial and ordered that a trial date be set.
On February 4, Judge Galvez ruled on the admissibility of
evidence for the parties. This February 4 decision accepted all of the
prosecution witnesses, experts and documentary evidence, and denied the defense
various of their proposed experts, reports and documents on the ground that
they were submitted out of time or in violation of certain procedural
obligations. The defense challenged the rejection of some of their proposed
experts and evidence, and on March 9, an appellate court granted a provisional
amparo on the issue of the admissibility of the proposed defense witnesses,
experts and evidence. This issue remains unresolved.
The defense continues to state that the trial cannot
start on Tuesday, and that they intend to challenge the opening of the oral
phase.
President Otto Perez Molina also spoke about the upcoming
trial on March 13, after having remained silent on various aspects of it for
months. He stated: “In Guatemala, there was no genocide,” and that he
“personally never received a document to go to massacre or kill a population.”
Thanks for reading,
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