NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Efraín Ríos Montt

José Efraín Ríos Montt (born June 16, 1926 in Huehuetenango, Guatemala) is a former President of Guatemala and former president of the Congress of Guatemala. In the 2003 presidential elections, he ran an unsuccessful candidate of the ruling Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG), despite a constitutional ban against former dictators running for president. Ríos Montt File links The following pages link to this file: Efraín Ríos Montt Categories: Images with unknown source ... Ríos Montt File links The following pages link to this file: Efraín Ríos Montt Categories: Images with unknown source ... June 16 is the 167th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (168th in leap years), with 198 days remaining. ... 1926 was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Huehuetenango is a city in the highlands of Western Guatemala. ... The President of Guatemala has been the usual title of the leader of Guatemala since 1851, when that title was assumed by José Rafael Carrera, who had been acting as head of government as general and Caudillo since 1840. ... The Congress of the Republic (Spanish: Congreso de la República) is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of Guatemala. ... 2003 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Guatemalan Republican Front (Spanish:Frente Republicano Guatemalteco (FRG)) is a political party in Guatemala. ...

Popularly known as "the general," Ríos Montt remains one of the most controversial figures in Guatemalan history. Regarded by his opponents as a genocidal neo-fascist, the former military ruler is seen by his supporters as a strong leader capable of restoring order, justice and equality to this turbulent nation. Human-rights groups claim that Ríos Montt, a staunch anticommunist who has had ties to the United States for over five decades (via the Pentagon's School of the Americas), the CIA, presidential administrations, and the evangelical religious right), has been among the bloodiest strongmen in Latin American history. Fascism (in Italian, fascismo), capitalized, refers to the authoritarian political movement which ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943 under the leadership of Benito Mussolini. ... Anti-communism is opposition to communist ideology, organization, or government, on either a theoretical or practical level. ... In geometry, a pentagon is any five-sided polygon. ... The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC), formerly School of the Americas (SOA), is a US Army facility at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia, USA. It is a training facility operated in the Spanish language especially for Latin American military personnel. ... The CIA Seal The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is one of the American foreign intelligence agencies, responsible for obtaining and analyzing information about foreign governments, corporations, and individuals, and reporting such information to the various branches of the U.S. Government. ... Evangelical has several distinct meanings: In its original sense, it means belonging or related to the Gospel (Greek: euangelion - good news) of the New Testament. ... The Religious Right, is a broad label applied to a number of political and religious movements with particularly conservative and right wing views. ...

Ríos Montt is best known outside Guatemala for heading a military regime (1982–1983) that presided over some of the worst atrocities of Guatemala's 36-year civil war, which finally ended with a peace treaty in 1996. Ríos Montt, however, denies that he knew anything about the massacres that were taking place under his rule. The civil war pitted left-wing rebel groups against the army, with huge numbers of Mayan campesinos caught in the crossfire. Some 200,000 Guatemalans were killed during the conflict, making it Latin America's most violent war in modern history. Augusto Pinochet (sitting) was an army general who led a military coup in Chile in 1973. ... 1982 is a number and represents a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar Events January January 6 - William Bonin is convicted of being the freeway killer. January 8 - AT&T agrees to divest itself of twenty-two subdivisions January 11 - Mark Thatcher, son of the British Prime... 1983 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Pre-Columbian Guatemala The Maya civilization flourished throughout much of Guatemala and the surrounding region for close to 2000 years before the Spanish arrived in the early 16th century. ... 1996 is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... A rebellion is, in the most general sense, a refusal to accept authority. ... Guatemala is a signatory to the Rio Pact and is a member of the Central American Defense Council (CONDECA). ... This article will mostly concern itself with the Maya civilization after the conquest by Spain. ... Campesino means simple farmer in Spanish. ...

Some sectors of the indigenous Mayan population suffered greatly under his rule, and it is thought that his government deliberately targeted some of them under the pretext of pursuing guerrillas, a modern expression of racism against the native population. However, many segments of the indigenous population still support Ríos Montt and the FRG, partly explained by his long history of supporting public works projects, offers of free fertilizer in rural areas, and compensation for the Self Defense Civil Patrols (PAC), which were used by the government in their fight against the guerrillas.

Contents

1 Background

2 Military regime

2.1 Frijoles y fusiles
2.2 U.S. backing
2.3 Removal from office

3 Comeback

3.1 Presidential candidate 2003

Background

The general'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 Panama, which at the time educated students in counterinsurgency tactics for the purposes of combating potential "communist" influence in the region. The Pentagon, looking east with the Potomac River and Washington Monument in the distance. ... 1950 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... This article is about communism as a form of society built around a gift economy, as an ideology that advocates that form of society, and as a popular movement. ...

In 1954, the young officer played a minor role in the successful CIA-organized coup against Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán, who was widely regarded as a "communist" in Washington. Arbenz had legalized the Communist Guatemalan Labor Party and was nationalizing lands owned by the United Fruit Company in which U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles was personally invested. [1] (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?entity=allen_welsh_dulles) 1954 was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Operation PBSUCCESS (1954) was the CIA-organized covert operation that overthrew the democratically-elected President of Guatemala, Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán. ... Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán was the democratically-elected, left-wing reformist President of Guatemala. ... Nationalization is the act of taking assets into state ownership. ... The United Fruit Company (1899-1970) was a corporation prominent in the import-export trade of tropical fruit (notably bananas and pineapples) coming from Third World plantations and sent to the United States and Europe. ... The Seal of the United States Secretary of State The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. ... John Foster Dulles John Foster Dulles (February 2, 1888 – May 24, 1959) was an American statesman who served as Secretary of State under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 - 1959. ...

Following the coup, Ríos Montt's rise in the ruling military junta was steady. In 1970, under President Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio, he became a general and chief of staff for the Guatemalan army, which, at the time, was suppressing peasant uprisings and serving as armed guards for big landowners. 1970 was a common year starting on Thursday. ... Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio (July 17, 1918 _ December 6, 2003) was President of Guatemala from 1 July 1970 to 1 July 1974. ...

In 1973, he resigned from his post in the Washington embassy to participate in the March 1974 presidential elections as candidate for the National Opposition Front (FNO). He lost the election to rivial right-wing candidate, Kjell Eugenio Laugerud García, by 70,000 votes. He denounced a massive electoral fraud, blaming Catholic priests who had questioned the mistreatment of the Catholic Mayans, and claimed that the priests were leftist agents. It is claimed that he was given a payoff of several hundred thousand dollars along with the post of military attaché in the embassy in Madrid, Spain, where he stayed until 1977. 1973 was a common year starting on Monday. ... 1977 was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1977 calendar). ...

In 1978, he left the Catholic Church and became a minister in the California-based evangelical Church of the Word; since then Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson have been personal friends. Now a born-again Christian, he is a Protestant in a predominantly Roman Catholic country, while the FRG take great pride in having both Catholics and Evangelicals among its rank and file. 1978 was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ... The Roman Catholic Church believes its founding was based on Jesus appointment of Saint Peter as the primary church leader, later Bishop of Rome. ... State nickname: The Golden State Other U.S. States Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Official languages English Area 410,000 km² (3rd) - Land 404,298 km² - Water 20,047 km² (4. ... Evangelism is the preaching of the Christian Gospel, or by extension any other form of preaching or proselytizing. ... Jerry L. Falwell (born August 11, 1933) is an American fundamentalist Baptist pastor, televangelist, founder of the Moral Majority & Liberty University, and a prominent Conservative activist. ... Marion Gordon Robertson, better known as Pat Robertson (born March 22, 1930), is an American Christian televangelist, entrepreneur, humanitarian, and right wing political activist. ... Born again is a common term in Christianity, referring to a transcending personal experience - being born again, as a new human being. ... Protestantism is a general grouping of denominations within Christianity. ... The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ...

Military regime

Frijoles y fusiles

On March 7, 1982 General Ángel Aníbal Guevara, the official party candidate, won the presidential election. On March 23, with the support of fellow soldiers General Horacio Maldonado Schaad and Colonel Francisco Luis Gordillo Martínez, Ríos Montt seized power in a coup d'état, that was quietly backed by the CIA, deposing General Romeo Lucas García. They set up a military tribunal with Ríos Montt at its head. The junta immediately suspended the constitution, shut down the legislature, set up secret tribunals, and began a campaign against political dissidents that included kidnapping, torture, and extra-judicial assassinations. The coup was described as being of the Oficiales jovenes (young officials), and prevented Guevara from being anointed president on July 1. March 7 is the 66th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (67th in Leap years). ... 1982 is a number and represents a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar Events January January 6 - William Bonin is convicted of being the freeway killer. January 8 - AT&T agrees to divest itself of twenty-two subdivisions January 11 - Mark Thatcher, son of the British Prime... March 23 is the 82nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (83rd in Leap years). ... Fernando Romeo Lucas García (born 1924) was the President of Guatemala from 1 July 1978 to 23 March 1982. ... What constitutes a military tribunal varies according to nation and sometimes even military branch and regional jurisdiction. ... A dissident is a person who actively opposes the established order. ... July 1 is the 182nd day of the year (183rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 183 days remaining. ...

Initially the coup was met with great hopes by the population that the extremely poor human rights and security situation might improve under the new regime. Ríos Montt invoked a modern apocalyptic vision comparing the four riders of the Book of Revelations to the four modern evils of hunger, misery, ignorance and subversion, as well as fighting corruption and what he described as the depredations of the rich. He said that the true Christian had the Bible in one hand and a machine gun in the other. On April 10, he launched the National Growth and Security Plan whose stated goals were to end the extermination and teach the populace about nationalism. They wanted to integrate the campesinos and indigenous peoples into the state, declaring that because of their illiteracy and "immaturity" they were particularly vulnerable to the seductions of 'international communism.' Great stress was laid on national power. The term apocalypse was introduced by F. Lücke (1832) as a description of the New Testament book of Revelation. ... The Revelation of St. ... Christianity is an Abrahamic religion based on the life, teachings, death by crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth as described in the New Testament. ... A Bible handwritten in Latin, on display in Malmesbury Abbey, Wiltshire, England. ... April 10 is the 100th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (101st in leap years). ... Campesino means simple farmer in Spanish. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of article quality. ...

On June 9, the other two members of the junta were forced to resign, leaving Ríos Montt as the sole leader, head of the armed forces, and minister of defense. Justifying himself in his Biblical visions he saw the campaign against the guerrilla groups as a Holy War. Violence escalated in the countryside, with the massacres becoming much more generalized in a campaign known as frijoles y fusiles (beans and guns). This was an attempt by Ríos Montt to win over the large indigenous population to the rule of the law, unleashing a scorched earth attack on the nation's Mayan population, particularly in the departments of Quiché and Huehuetenango, that, according to an investigative United Nations commission, resulted in the annihilation of nearly 600 villages. One example was the Plan de Sánchez massacre in Baja Verapaz in June 1982, which saw over 250 people killed. The administration established special military courts that had the power to impose death penalties against suspected peasant guerrillas. Thousands of Guatemalan Maya fled over the border into southern Mexico. Meanwhile, in the urban areas a temporary calm was experienced. The June amnesty for political prisoners was replaced by a state of siege that limited the activities of political parties and labor unions under the threat of death by firing squad. June 9 is the 160th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (161st in leap years), with 205 days remaining. ... A Bible handwritten in Latin, on display in Malmesbury Abbey, Wiltshire, England. ... Scorched earth is a military tactic which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy whilst advancing through or withdrawing from an area. ... This page is about the Native American people; for the dish, see quiche. ... Huehuetenango is a city in the highlands of Western Guatemala. ... The United Nations, or UN, is an international organization established in 1945 and now made up of 191 states. ... Plan de Sánchez is a village in the municipality of Rabinal in the department of Baja Verapaz in Guatemala. ... Baja Verapaz is a department in Guatemala. ... Execution by firing squad is a method of capital punishment, especially in times of war. ...

In 1982 an Amnesty International report estimated that over 10,000 indigenous Guatemalans and peasant farmers were killed during the March-July period, and that 100,000 were made homeless. According to more recent estimates, tens of thousands were killed by regime death squads in the subsequent eighteen months. 1982 is a number and represents a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar Events January January 6 - William Bonin is convicted of being the freeway killer. January 8 - AT&T agrees to divest itself of twenty-two subdivisions January 11 - Mark Thatcher, son of the British Prime... Amnesty International (commonly known as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization, the stated purpose of which is to promote all the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international standards. ... A death squad is an extra-judicial group whose members execute or assassinate persons they believe to be politically unreliable or undesirable. ...

U.S. backing

Given Ríos Montt's staunch anticommunism and ties to the United States, the Reagan administration continued to support the general and his regime, paying a visit to Guatemala City in December 1982. [2] (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3788229.stm) During a meeting with Ríos Montt on December 4, Reagan declared: "President Ríos Montt is a man of great personal integrity and commitment. ... I know he wants to improve the quality of life for all Guatemalans and to promote social justice."¹ National Palace National Post Office Building Guatemala City (in full, La Nueva Guatemala de la Asunción; locally known as Guatemala or, informally, Guate) is the capital and largest city of Guatemala. ...

Reagan later agreed in January 1983 to sell Guatemala millions of dollars worth of helicopter spare parts, a decision that did not require approval from Congress. In turn, Guatemala was eager to resurrect the Central American Defense Council, defunct since 1969, in order to join forces with the right-wing governments of El Salvador and Honduras in retaliations against the leftist Sandinista government of Nicaragua. 1983 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Congress of the United States is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States of America. ... The Central American Defense Council was an alliance of Central American countries united for the common purpose of quelling guerrilla movements that threatened stability in the region during the Cold War. ... 1969 was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1969 calendar). ... Sandinista! is also the name of a popular music album by The Clash. ...

Removal from office

By the end of 1982, Ríos Montt, claiming that the war against the leftist guerrillas had been won, said that the government's work was one of "techo, trabajo, y tortillas" ("roofs, work, and tortillas"). 1982 is a number and represents a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar Events January January 6 - William Bonin is convicted of being the freeway killer. January 8 - AT&T agrees to divest itself of twenty-two subdivisions January 11 - Mark Thatcher, son of the British Prime... A staple of Mexican and Central American cuisine, a tortilla is a kind of unleavened bread, made from maize corn or wheat flour. ...

Three coups had been attempted since he came to power. On June 29th 1983 he declared a state of emergency, and announced elections for July 1984. On August 8 General Oscar Humberto Mejía Victores overthrew the regime in a bloodless coup. The unpopularity of Ríos was widespread, exacerbated by his refusal to grant clemency to six guerrillas during the visit of Pope John Paul II. The military was offended by his promotion of young officers in defiance of the Army's traditional hierarchy. Much of the middle class was alienated by his decision on August 1 to introduce the value-added tax, never before levied in Guatemala. June 29 is the 180th day of the year (181st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 185 days remaining. ... 1983 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1984 is a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... August 8 is the 220th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (221st in leap years), with 145 days remaining. ... Óscar Humberto Mejía Victores (born 1930) was President of Guatemala from 8 August 1983 to 14 January 1986. ... His Holiness Pope John Paul II (Latin: ), born Karol Józef Wojtyła [1] (May 18, 1920 – April 2, 2005), reigned as Pope of the Roman Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City for almost 27 years, from 16 October 1978 until his death. ... The middle class (or middle classes) comprises a social group once defined by exception as an intermediate social class between the nobility and the peasantry. ... August 1st is the 213th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (214th in leap years), with 152 days remaining. ... Value added tax (VAT) is a sales tax levied on the sale of goods and services. ...

The killings continued even after Ríos Montt was eased from office in 1983. Some human rights groups charge that perhaps as many as one million Mayan peasants were uprooted from their homes, and that many were forced to live in re-education concentration camps and to work in the fields of Guatemalan land barons. Ríos Montt's supporters claim that his repressive tactics were necessary to restore order to the country and defeat leftist guerrilla groups. The Mayan Indian and campesino population suffered greatly under Ríos Montt's government, who deliberately targeted them while pursuing guerrillas, though he himself has said he was not aware that the massacres were taking place. 1983 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A concentration camp is a large detention centre created for political opponents, aliens, specific ethnic or religious groups, civilians of a critical war-zone, or other groups of people, often during a war. ... The word Maya or maya can refer to: The Maya – a Native American people of southern Mexico and northern Central America the modern Maya people the pre-Columbian Maya civilization the Maya language Maya – a concept in Hindu/Vedic philosophy a state of misperception of reality the inherent force of... Campesino means simple farmer in Spanish. ...

Comeback

Ríos Montt founded the FRG in 1989. He tried to run for president in 1990, and was considered the favorite, but was prohibited from entering the race by the constitutional court due to a constitutional provision banning people who had participated in military coups from becoming president. He was an FRG deputy between 1990 and 2004. In 1994 he was elected head of the unicameral legislature. With his attempt to run in 1994 also banned he supported his fellow FRG friend Alfonso Portillo as candidate for the presidency, which Portillo narrowly lost in 1995, and won in 1999. The Guatemalan Republican Front (Spanish:Frente Republicano Guatemalteco (FRG)) is a political party in Guatemala. ... 1989 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1990 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1990 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1994 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ... Unicameralism is the practice of having only one legislative or parliamentary chamber. ... 1994 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ... Categories: Stub | 1951 births | Presidents of Guatemala ... 1995 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1999 is a common year starting on Friday of the Common Era, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ...

Guatemalan campaigners on behalf of Maya survivors of Guatemala's civil war, such as Nobel laureate and Mayan human rights advocate Rigoberta Menchú, were amazed in March when 1999 U.S. President Bill Clinton apologized for the United States support of Ríos Montt's regime. Clinton declared: "For the United States, it is important I state clearly that support for military forces and intelligence units which engaged in violence and widespread repression was wrong and the United States must not repeat that mistake." [3] (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/daily/march99/clinton11.htm) Rigoberta Menchú Tum (born in Chimel, Guatemala, January 9, 1959) was the recipient of the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize, given in recognition of her work for social justice and ethno-cultural reconciliation based on respect for the rights of indigenous peoples. Her prize is based in part on her 1987... 1999 is a common year starting on Friday of the Common Era, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... Order: 42nd President Vice President: Al Gore Term of office: January 20, 1993 – January 20, 2001 Preceded by: George H. W. Bush Succeeded by: George W. Bush Date of birth: August 19, 1946 Place of birth: Hope, Arkansas First Lady: Hillary Rodham Clinton Political party: Democratic William Jefferson Clinton (born...

The same August President Portillo admitted involvement of the government in human rights abuses over the previous 20 years, including for 2 massacres that took place during Ríos Montt's presidency. The first massacre was in Plan de Sánchez, in Baja Verapaz with 268 dead, and in Two Erres in Petén, where 200 people were murdered. Guatemalas Plan de Sánchez massacre took place in the village of Plan de Sánchez, Rabinal municipality, department of Baja Verapaz, on 18 July 1982. ... Plan de Sánchez is a village in the municipality of Rabinal in the department of Baja Verapaz in Guatemala. ... Baja Verapaz is a department in Guatemala. ... Dos Erres (the name literally means 2Rs) is a village in the Petén department of Guatemala. ... El Petén El Petén is a department of the nation of Guatemala. ...

Presidential candidate 2003

The FRG nominated Montt in May 2003 for the forthcoming November presidential election, but his candidacy was initially, and once again, rejected by the electoral registry and by two lower courts. In July 2003, Guatemala's highest court, which had had several judges appointed from the FRG, approved his candidacy for president ostensibly ignoring a constitutional ban against former dictators running for president, which had prevented him from standing at earlier presidential elections, and which he claimed had been written specifically to prevent him from standing. 2003 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December - → A timeline of events in the news for May, 2003. ... A General Election was held in Guatemala on 9 November 2003. ... 2003 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Later, however, the Supreme Court suspended his campaign for the presidency and agreed to hear a complaint brought by two right-of-center parties that the general was constitutionally barred from running for president of the country. Ríos Montt denounced the ruling as judicial manipulation and, in a radio address, called on his followers to take to the streets to protest against this decision. On July 24th, in a day known as jueves negro (black Thursday) thousands of masked FRG supporters invaded the streets of Guatemala City armed with machetes, clubs and guns. They had been bussed in from all over the country by the FRG amidst claims that people working in FRG controlled municipalities were being blackmailed with being sacked if they did not attend the demonstration. The demonstrators blocking traffic, chanted threatening slogans, and waved their machetes about. They were led by well known FRG militants, including a well known member of congress who was photographed by the press early in the morning while co-ordinating the actions. The demonstrators marched on the courts, the opposition parties headquarters, and newspapers, torching buildings, shooting out windows and burning cars and tires in the streets. A TV journalist, Héctor Fernando Ramírez, died of a heart attack running away from a mob who were chasing him. The situation was so chaotic over the weekend that both the UN mission and the U.S. embassy were closed. July 24 is the 205th day (206th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 160 days remaining. ... National Palace National Post Office Building Guatemala City (in full, La Nueva Guatemala de la Asunción; locally known as Guatemala or, informally, Guate) is the capital and largest city of Guatemala. ... Blackmail is threatening to reveal substantially true information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a monetary demand is met. ... An American family watching television in the 1950s. ... A journalist is a person who practices journalism, the gathering and dissemination of information about current events, trends, issues and people. ... Héctor Fernando Ramírez, better known as Reportero X (Reporter X) died of a heart attack on July 24th 2003 of a heart attack in Guatemala City while being chased by a mob in what is referred to as jueves negro (black Thursday). ... The United Nations, or UN, is an international organization established in 1945 and now made up of 191 states. ...

Following the rioting, the Constitutional Court, packed with the Montt and Portillo's allies, overturned the Supreme Court decision. The legal reasoning behind the final decision was not immediately made public. However, Ríos Montt had argued that the ban on coup leaders, formalized in the 1985 Constitution, could not be applied retroactively to acts before that date. Many Guatemalans expressed anger over the Court's decision. 1985 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In the post-Cold War environment, U.S. support for Ríos Montt has subsided. In June the State Department publicly announced that it would prefer to deal with a less tarnished figure, but maintained that bilateral relations would remain strong under Ríos Montt's rule, or that of any other democratically elected leader.

However, during tense but peaceful presidential elections held on November 9, Ríos Montt received just 11 percent of the votes, putting him a distant third behind businessman Óscar Berger, head of the conservative National Grand Alliance (PAN), and Álvaro Colom of the National Unity of Hope (UNE). As he was running for president he could not also run to be a member of Congress at the same time, and thus ended his 14 years there. November 9 is the 313th day of the year (314th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 52 days remaining. ... Pres. ... Álvaro Colom Caballeros (born 15 June 1951) is a Guatemalan politician. ...

Attempts to indict Montt on charges of genocide have so far failed. Rigoberta Menchú sought to have Ríos Montt tried in Spanish courts in 1999 for crimes committed against Spanish citizens. So far, these attempts have been unsuccessful. Look up Genocide in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Genocide has been defined as the deliberate killing of people based on their ethnicity, nationality, race, religion, or (sometimes) politics, as well as other deliberate action(s)leading to the physical elimination of any of the above categories. ... Rigoberta Menchú Tum (born in Chimel, Guatemala, January 9, 1959) was the recipient of the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize, given in recognition of her work for social justice and ethno-cultural reconciliation based on respect for the rights of indigenous peoples. Her prize is based in part on her 1987...

His daughter Zury Ríos Sosa, also member of Congress, married U.S. Representative Jerry Weller (a Republican of Illinois) on November 20, 2004. Ríos Montt was present for the ceremony, despite being under house arrest, after obtaining the permission of a judge. This house arrest also does not stop him from leaving his house to travel around Guatemala. Zury Ríos Sosa (b. ... The House of Representatives is the larger of two houses that make up the U.S. Congress, the other being the United States Senate. ... Gerald C. Jerry Weller (born July 7, 1957) is an American politician who has been a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives since 1994, representing the 11th District of Illinois. ... The Republican Party, often called the GOP (for Grand Old Party, although one early citation described it as the Gallant Old Party) [1], is one of the two major political parties in the United States. ... State nickname: Land of Lincoln, The Prairie State Other U.S. States Capital Springfield Largest city Chicago Governor Rod Blagojevich Official languages English Area 149,998 km² (25th) - Land 143,968 km² - Water 6,030 km² (4. ... November 20 is the 324th day of the year (325th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... In justice and law, house arrest is the situation where a person is confined (by the authorities) to his or her house, possibly with travel allowed but restricted. ...

External links

BBC article Montt defying ban (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2972468.stm)

Notes

1. See Schirmer, Jennifer (1998) The Guatemalan Military Project: A Violence Called Democracy. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 33.

Preceded by:
Fernando Romeo Lucas García

Presidents of Guatemala

Succeeded by:
Óscar Humberto Mejía Victores

Categories: 1926 births | Cold War people | Presidents of Guatemala Fernando Romeo Lucas García (born 1924) was the President of Guatemala from 1 July 1978 to 23 March 1982. ... The President of Guatemala has been the usual title of the leader of Guatemala since 1851, when that title was assumed by José Rafael Carrera, who had been acting as head of government as general and Caudillo since 1840. ... Óscar Humberto Mejía Victores (born 1930) was President of Guatemala from 8 August 1983 to 14 January 1986. ...

COMMENTARY

Share your thoughts, questions and commentary here

Want to know more?
Search encyclopedia, statistics and forums:

Feeds | Contact
The Wikipedia article included on this page is licensed under the GFDL.
Images may be subject to relevant owners' copyright.
All other elements are (c) copyright NationMaster.com 2003-5. All Rights Reserved.
Usage implies agreement with terms, 1022, m

Background GA_googleFillSlot("encyclopedia_square");