Stories of massacres, women gang raped by soldiers, people who were forced to watch while their loved ones were tortured and murdered, communities that faced starvation after they were forced to flee to the mountains.

Since the trial of former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt (1982-83) and his chief of intelligence José Mauricio Rodríguez Sánchez began on Mar. 19 this year, a three-judge tribunal presided by Jazmín Barrios heard 98 witness testimonies of Ixil Mayans who survived the massacres perpetrated by the Guatemalan army in the highland department of Quiché.

 

Patrick Ball, who has spent over 20 years assisting human rights defenders and truth commissions by conducting statistical analysis of large-scale human rights abuses, proved that 2,147 Mayans of the 38,902 that inhabited the Ixil towns of San Juan Cotzal, San Gaspar Chajul and Santa María Nebaj were killed under the Ríos Montt dictatorship (Mar. 1982-Aug. 1983), whereas 41 non-indigenous Guatemalans out of total of 5,882 were killed.

 

Sociologist Marta Elena Casaús Arzú argued that “historical and structural racism in Guatemala reaches a height during the armed conflict due to the stigmatization of indigenous identity.” “It is at this point,” she said, “that racism is expressed as a state-sponsored ideology, a machine designed to exterminate an ethnic group, in this case the Ixil people.”

 

Testimony from former officers illustrated how the chain of command worked and how Ríos Montt must have had full knowledge of the army operations as each battalion commander had to submit detailed reports, many of which mention how unarmed civilians, including women and children, were rounded up and killed.

 

 

On Apr. 4, the revelations about the role played by current President Otto Pérez Molina, a retired army general, during the armed conflict, gave the Ríos Montt trial a dramatic twist. “People’s shacks were burnt down in the village of Salquil Grande. Major Tito Arias, better known as Otto Pérez Molina, was in command there. And let me tell you that executions were committed there,” said Hugo Ramiro Leonardo Reyes, a former army mechanic, who testified via video link.

 

By Apr. 18, the trial was drawing to an end and both the defense and the prosecution were ready to sum up their arguments. But an hour after the hearing began, Ríos Montt and Rodríguez Sánchez’s lawyers abruptly left the courtroom arguing that the trial was “illegal.” Presiding Judge Jazmín Barrios was unable to stop them and was forced to suspend the hearing until the following day.

 

Hours later, Judge Carol Patricia Flores announced that the Constitutional Court (CC) — the nation’s highest court — had reinstated her to the case after she was recused from it in Feb. 2012. Flores ruled that while she had been removed from the case, all actions taken by Judge Barrios were null and set back the process to the beginning.

 

Judge Flores, of the First High Risk Tribunal A, had initially been assigned to the case. However, after the defense succeeded in securing an order for her recusal in November 2011, on the grounds of partiality, the case was transferred to Judge Miguel Ángel Gálvez, of the First High Risk Tribunal B, who decided there was enough evidence for Ríos Montt and Rodríguez Sánchez to be tried. The trial then began with a three-judge panel presided by Judge Barrios.

 

US journalist Allan Nairn, who was supposed to testify on Apr. 15 but was told at the last minute that his testimony had been cancelled, claims that intense pressure from President Pérez Molina forced the trial to grind to a halt. He has also said that judges and prosecutors have been threatened during the course of the trial. Nairn’s testimony would have included his interviews with Ríos Montt during the 1980s, during which the former dictator openly admitted his knowledge of the massacres, and also the role played by Pérez Molina in wartime atrocities.

 

After two weeks of uncertainty during which victims and human rights activists held vigils outside the CC, Judge Barrios was able to resume the trial, arguing that Judge Flores had misinterpreted the CC’s orders. Attorney General Claudia Paz y Paz also said that it was wrong for Judge Flores to stall the trial. So far the CC has failed to formally clarify this contentious issue.

 

After choosing to remain silent during the entire trial, on May 9, Ríos Montt decided to make an hour-long closing statement in which he blamed his field commanders for the human rights abuses that were committed, arguing that they had acted autonomously.

 

“I am innocent. I never intended to destroy any of the country’s ethnic groups. I did not commit genocide. I never authorized, I never signed, I never gave orders to attack a specific racial, ethnic or religious group. Never!” he bellowed.

 

 

The following day, both parties finished summing up their arguments and the judges retired to consider their verdict. At four o’clock, they returned to the court room. The atmosphere was tense as it was feared that Ríos Montt’s defense team would resort to yet another legal ruse to halt the trial.

 

“Efraín Ríos Montt held absolute power and he therefore had full knowledge of the crimes committed and did not stop them,” Judge Barrios told a packed courtroom. She also said that specific actions such as the murder of pregnant women and their unborn fetuses are evidence of the intention to annihilate the Ixil ethnic group. “These actions must never be repeated. The Guatemalan people want to live in peace,” she said.

 

The former dictator was found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity and was given an 80-year prison sentence; whereas Rodríguez Sánchez was acquitted as the judges considered that there was insufficient evidence to prove his involvement in acts of genocide.

 

Judge Barrios instructed the Attorney General’s Office to open an investigation into all other members of the armed forces who took part in the atrocities committed under the Ríos Montt dictatorship, which would include Pérez Molina.

 

Human rights activists jubilantly raised their fists and cried “Justice!,” embraced each other and sang “I only ask of God,” a song by Argentinean songwriter Leon Gieco that has become a rallying cry in Latin American countries that have suffered brutal dictatorships. “I only ask of God, that I’am not indifferent to war. It is a huge monster that tramples on the poor innocence of people,” chanted the crowd as Ríos Montt was led away by police officers. Meanwhile, the Mayan Ixil victims, mostly women, wept in silence.

 

Wiping tears from her eyes, Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchú, said: “Ladinos [non-indigenous Guatemalans] now have the opportunity to stand by the Mayan people (…) Today a precedent has been set against the hatred that ladinos have always felt against us.”

 

“This is an achievement for the Ixil people, for the Mayan people, for Guatemalan people, and it should also teach us not to remain silent when injustice is committed because we know that Latin America is also being subjected to violence,” said Ixil leader Ana Lainez Herrera.

 

—Latinamerica Press.