Justice
Ex-military chief in Guatemala on trial for genocide
Guatemala: People carry coffins containing the remains of indigenous civil war victims in Santa Avelina. The ex-military chief in Guatemala is back in court. photo
© Luis Soto/dpa
Almost 30 years after the end of the civil war in Guatemala, many crimes have still not been solved. Many suspected perpetrators are now very old – like the 91-year-old former chief of general staff.
The defendant was present at the start of the trial from a hospital, as can be seen in a video. He had already been sentenced to 58 years in prison for crimes against humanity in another trial in 2018, but an appeals court overturned the conviction last year.
In the civil war between state security forces, left-wing guerrilla groups and right-wing paramilitaries in Guatemala from 1960 to 1996, at least 200,000 people died, most of them indigenous civilians. There were numerous massacres and cases of sexual violence.
The trials of some of the key defendants were repeatedly postponed. Former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt (1982-1983) died under house arrest six years ago while he was still on trial for genocide for the murder of 1,771 members of the Mayan Ixil people. A previous conviction had been overturned due to procedural errors.