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    Guatemala judge steps down in ex-dictator's case

    By ROMINA RUIZ-GOIRIENA | Associated Press – Tue, Feb 21, 2012

    GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — A Guatemalan judge overseeing the genocide case of former dictator Efrain Rios Montt stepped down Tuesday, accepting a defense request.

    Judge Carol Patricia Flores made the announcement just before a hearing at which she was to decide whether to drop charges against Rios Montt because of an amnesty law.

    The removal stemmed from a complaint filed in November by defense lawyers of a general also involved in the case who accused the judge of being biased.

    Rios Montt ruled Guatemala in 1982-83 after a military coup. He is accused in 1,771 deaths, 1,400 human rights violations and the displacement of 29,000 indigenous Guatemalans.

    New judge Miguel Angel Galvez postponed Tuesday's hearing until March.

    Galvez said the decisions that Flores already made, such as charging Rios Montt with genocide and crimes against humanity, remain in place.

    The defense lawyer for Rios Montt complained in late January that Flores violated due process by charging the former dictator before hearing his testimony. Rios Montt was supposed to testify in a hearing but refused to respond to questions.

    It's the first time a Latin American court has charged a former president with genocide.

    The case also involves retired generals Mauricio Rodriguez Sanchez and Hector Mario Lopez Fuentes, the army chief of staff under Rios Montt. Both men are in their 80s and contend poor health has kept them from court proceedings.

    The defense request that Flores step down was filed by a lawyer for Lopez Fuentes.

     

    1 comment

    • buddy
      buddy  •  3 mths ago
      Cubas Communist dictator, Fidel Castro, launched a new turn in Cuban foreign policy, sponsoring and arming a series of guerrilla offensives in Central AmericaNicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemalaalong lines laid down by Regis Debray and Che Guevara a decade before. The leaders of these movements were generally not Indians but Hispanics, principally the disaffected middle- and upper-class scions of the ruling castes of those countries. They were often the graduates of cadre training centers in Moscow and Havana, and of terrorist training camps in Lebanon and East Germany. (The leaders of the Salvadoran guerillas even included a Lebanese Communist and #$%$ Muslim named Shafik Handal.)
      • A Yahoo! User 3 mths ago
        Your deliberate obfuscation of the history of the reign of domestic terror promulgated by the Guatemalan generals installed originally in the 1950s by the CIA and supported by the United States (major state sponsor of terrorism) through the administration of Reagan is appalling and despicable.
      • we are slaves
        we are slaves 3 mths ago
        @buddy...take a minute and research Latin Americans history, you'll find that almost all previous dictators were installed and funded by the U.S. government. Many times these Dictators were responsible for atrocities across Latin America. Some of the worst taking place in Guatemala, 200,000 deaths, 50,000 disappeared and over a million displaced in a country of 13 million. So before you start with the "evils of Communism" crap from the Reagan era, you should take a second and look at the facts.
     Post a comment
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