May 10, 2013 - U.S.-backed Guatemalan General found guilty of genocide

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May 12, 2023


** 10th Anniversary
U.S.-backed General Efrain Rios Montt found guilty on May 10, 2013,
of crime of genocide in Guatemala
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10^th anniversary, Historic Genocide Verdict
Photos of victims of genocide and forced disappearances.
Photo: Grahame Russell, May 10, 2023, 6^th Avenue, Zone 1, Guatemala City
At 6:45pm, May 10, 2013, general Efrain Rios Montt was found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity. A courageous, precedent-setting achievement – globally and historically, all the more so as repression and racism, corruption and impunity continue systemically today in Guatemala, ruled by a military-backed, genocide-denying government.

To date, there have been no justice processes against U.S. political or military officials for the direct role of the U.S. in Guatemala’s genocides.
* Below: A short note by Pamela Yates, Creative Director at Skylight, with links to some of Skylight’s important films about the Genocide trial, and with reflections by some Guatemalans about the importance of the guilty verdict against Efrain Rios Montt.

As Guatemala, today, lives through yet another dark period of repression and persecution carried out by the U.S. and Canadian-backed ‘Covenant of the Corrupt’ Guatemala regime, one should always take heart in achievements such as the guilty verdict in the Genocide trial.

It is an extraordinary achievement of (partial) justice on a global and historic level, even as one is reminded just how hard it is, and how long it takes to bring about serious transformation and change in a country like Guatemala, particularly when the military-backed, anti-democratic, 'genocide-denying' government in power maintains full political, economic and military relations with the U.S., Canada and other countries and actors in the “international community”, that consider the government to be a “democratic allie”!
People in the courtroom cheered the guilty verdict finding against General Efraín Ríos Montt, an unprecedented trial for all of the Americas, on May 10, 2013.
Photo: Daniel Hernández-Salazar from 500 Years.
Dear Friend,

Today marks the day when General Efraín Ríos Montt was declared guilty of genocide against the indigenous people of Guatemala. That this small country built an airtight case and created a legal precedent for itself, Latin America, and the world, was a great human rights victory to be celebrated.

Even though later the Guatemalan political and business elites could vacate the verdict on technical (not evidentiary) grounds, and Ríos Montt died before he could be retried, he died a convinced genocidaire.

As they say in Guatemala, El veredicto está vigente - The verdict stands.

I was at the trial, filming for our feature documentary 500 Years and our web series Dictator in the Dock (which you can watch in its entirety via our Facebook page) - [link removed]

Our interview with Riós Montt from 1982 was part of the key forensic evidence presented at the trial that helped convict him. When a journalist asked Ríos Montt if he remembered being filmed by me in 1982, he replied, “I don’t remember her, but now I’ll never forget her.”

I asked five Guatemalans who were all at the trial, who testified, documented, and wrote about it, to tell us their thoughts about this legacy ten years later. (Find below)

In solidarity,
Pamela Yates
Creative Director, Skylight
[email protected] (mailto:[email protected])

Watch our short film, The Verdict, a synopsis of the trial here (13 mins.):
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Kaxh Mura’l, Maya-Ixil human rights defender seeking asylum in the U.S.

Ten years later, what is the legacy of having tried Rios Montt for genocide and crimes against humanity?

The date that the sentence was achieved will always be remembered as an important date where a very important and very big step was taken in the search for justice. Where many cried with joy and celebrated that justice had finally been done for their loved ones who were murdered, we believe that this date gave peace and tranquility to the spirit of our deceased. The person responsible did not die free but rather died sentenced. And that led him to realize that he was to blame for the suffering of thousands of indigenous people.

The people of Guatemala, mainly the Maya-Ixil population, decided to start that story, which paves the way for a long process that seeks to empower the Indigenous population to seek justice for the victims of the armed conflict. There is still a long way to go. And it is important to mention that although the perpetrators of these crimes continue to deny the facts, that does not mean there is no ruling on the case for genocide. There is a sentence written on paper, but there is also one in the minds of those who suffered those crimes. The system can erase and manipulate the sentence on paper. But that does not change the history that is written with blood and pain in the lives of the thousands of indigenous people who suffered this violence. Read more by Kaxh Mura’l.

Irma Alicia Velásquez Nimatuj, Ph.D., is a journalist, social anthropologist, author, academic, and international spokeswoman. Dr. Velásquez Nimatuj was the first Maya-K’iche woman to earn a doctorate in social anthropology, and she initiated the court case that made racial discrimination illegal in Guatemala.

The legacy of the trial against General José Efraín Ríos Montt for genocide against the Maya-Ixil People is to have shown that when the justice system is independent, it is capable of materializing a universal principle of justice. One that says that no one, regardless of their social status, racial origin, position they hold, or any special privileges, is above the law. The survivors of the Maya-Ixil genocide bequeathed to all the Indigenous Peoples of the world the example that it is a historical duty to judge their torturers because through that act, they dignify the lives of their peoples.

Dr. Marta Casaús Arzú holds a political science doctorate in sociology and was an expert witness at the genocide trial. She is the author of the classic: Linaje y Racismo (Lineage and Racism) about the phenomenon of racism and discrimination towards the Mayas in her Guatemala.

I believe that the verdict against General Ríos Montt and Rodríguez Sánchez, which marks 10 years since it was handed down on May 10, 2013, marked a milestone in the history of criminal law in Guatemala and international jurisprudence. The case represented a watershed in the history of Guatemala and a lesson in citizenship for Guatemalan society because it allowed, for the first time in centuries and decades, Maya, mestizo, and ladino men and women, who had suffered for centuries from violence and indiscriminate racism and who, during the armed conflict, had been subjected to serious human rights violations, could tell their story, be heard at the national and international level, renegotiate their memories and sentence a soldier responsible for genocide and crimes against humanity to 80 years in prison for genocide and for crimes against humanity. Read more by Marta Casaús Arzú.
General Efraín Ríos-Montt and his attorneys after hearing the guilty verdict for genocide and crimes against humanity on May 10, 2013. Photo: Daniel Hernández-Salazar from 500 Years.
Daniel Hernández-Salazar is a Guatemalan photojournalist who has created an archive of images central to the historical memory of Guatemala. He is also a fine arts photographer who has shown in museums and galleries in Guatemala and worldwide.

Since the assassination of Monsignor Juan Gerardi in April 1998, Guatemala began another slide into the darkness of impunity and injustice. Slowly moving, the backsliding accelerated after the clear guilty verdict handed down against the fanatical and largely symbolic military man, Efraín Ríos Montt, on May 10, 2013. Then, at the instigation of his daughter Zury [Ríos], the forces that govern behind the scenes, exerted influence, threatened, and pressured until they managed to get the Constitutional Court to order the trial to be rolled back to the beginning, with the hope that Ríos Montt would die before being found guilty again, which happened in 2018.

As a photographer and documenter, I consider my work a contribution to society, so I dedicated myself to documenting the trial. The images that I obtained symbolically summarize this process and represent the history of this country and its jurisprudence. They are a testament and tribute to the victims and the protagonists of the search for justice for the barbarity that occurred in our country. It is also a way of resisting until the gale of impunity passes.

Read more by Daniel Hernández-Salazar: [link removed]

Andrea​ ​Ixchíu​ ​is​ ​Maya​ ​K’iche’​ ​leader,​ ​journalist,​ ​law student,​ ​human​ ​rights​ ​activist,​ ​and​ ​a​ ​self-professed geek​ ​with​ ​an​ ​expertise​ ​in​ ​internet​ ​security.​ ​She​ ​was the​ ​youngest​ ​woman​ ​elected​ ​as​ ​a​ ​tribal​ ​leader​ ​in​ ​her highland​ ​community,​ ​where​ ​as​ ​President​ ​of​ ​the Natural​ ​Resources​ ​Board,​ ​she​ ​was​ ​in​ ​charge​ ​of protecting​ ​their​ ​ancestral​ ​forest​ ​of Totonicapán​ ​from​ ​extractive​ ​industry​ ​incursions.​

The genocide trial reminds us that the inequality, authoritarianism, and violence we suffer today in Guatemala have old roots. This trial was a landmark in the world, not only because it was the first attempt by a Guatemalan court to try a crime of this magnitude, but above all because of the political burden it has in a racist country like Guatemala, which members of indigenous communities they will achieve justice amid a corrupt system and where impunity reigns.

Above all, this process showed that the country's structural problems are still latent and that there are sectors responsible for the violence of yesteryear, like businessmen and the military, who continue to deny the magnitude of the violence they provoked and, above all, refuse to assume the consequences of his actions. This trial was also a lesson for the world in the struggle, dignity, and courage of the Maya-Ixil People. Watch Andrea’s Ixchiú’s video statement (in Spanish).

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At Skylight we strengthen social justice movements through cinematic storytelling and catalyze collaborative networks of artists and activists.
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TESTIMONIO-Canadian Mining in the Aftermath of Genocides in Guatemala
Edited by Catherine Nolin (UNBC) and Grahame Russell (Rights Action)
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