Justice in Guatemala

Efraín Ríos Montt headed Guatemala’s military government from March 1982 to August 1983. During that period, the government carried out a scorched earth campaign which resulted in the most extensive human rights violations of Guatemala’s 36-year internal armed conflict. Now he must be extradited to Spain to face trail. Learn more and take action here:

Action and News
Take action here

or Call the San Francisco Guatemalan Consulate at (415) 788-5651 and ask to speak to the Consul General.

Efraín Ríos Montt headed Guatemala’s military government from March 1982 to August 1983. During that period, the government carried out a scorched earth campaign which resulted in the most extensive human rights violations of Guatemala’s 36-year internal armed conflict. A UN-sponsored truth commission concluded that acts of genocide had been committed, “through methods whose cruelty has outraged the moral conscience of the civilized world.”

Having faced delays, harassment, and other obstacles in their efforts to obtain justice in Guatemalan courts, a group of survivors filed a suit in Spain, under the principle that the crimes of which Ríos Montt is accused are so grave that every country has an obligation to bring him to trial.

In July 2006, Spain’s National Court charged and several other former senior officials with genocide, torture, terrorism and illegal detention, and issued warrants for their arrest. In a further landmark development, the Guatemalan authorities subsequently took some of the accused into custody in order to ensure that they would not flee the country.

Ríos Montt, however, remains free, and in January, he announced his plan to run for Congress, asserting that a Congressional seat would provide him with parliamentary immunity from prosecution. Guatemala’s parliamentary immunity is not absolute, however, nor is immunity for serious crimes such torture and genocide an option in Spain’s courts. Nonetheless, Ríos Montt’s latest maneuver has raised renewed concerns for the international campaign to bring him to justice.

There has never been a more critical time for action. The message from the international community must be clear: Ríos Montt should either face trial in Guatemala or be extradited to Spain, where the national court has issued an international warrant for his arrest.