By Mark O’Brien
Impunity Watch Reporter

GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala — A Guatemalan judge began accepting evidence Thursday in the case against former dictator Jose Efrain Rios Montt.

The hearing to accept testimonies, documents, and other evidence marked the final step before Montt’s trial would begin.  Montt, who rose to power during a coup in March 1982, is accused of ordering the murder, torture, and displacement of more than 1,700 indigenous peoples between 1982 and 1983.

Earlier this week, Judge Miguel Angel Galvez ruled that Montt could stand trial on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity in the so-called “scorched earth” campaign aimed at eliminating support for leftist guerrillas when he was president from 1982 to 1983, one of the bloodiest periods in Guatemala’s 36-year civil war.

Montt is the first former president to be charged with genocide by a Latin American court.  Many human rights advocates say his trial also will shine the spotlight on the United States’ involvement in Guatemala’s civil war.

In an effort to prevent the spread of communism into Latin America, the United States supported the Guatemalan government during the war — a government that was responsible for much of the human rights violations.

In 1983, despite confirmation of mass killings in Guatemalan villages by anti-guerrilla forces, U.S. President Ronald Reagan overturned an arms embargo imposed by U.S. President Jimmy Carter three years earlier.  Reagan pointed to improving human rights conditions in the Central American country.

Lifting the embargo allowed the United States to provide military, economic, and political assistance — including military weapons and vehicles — to the Guatemalan government.  Meanwhile, a CIA cable at that time highlighted an increase in suspicious violence resulting in more bodies being discovered in ditches.

Critics of the United States’ role in the Guatemalan war blame its actions decades earlier.  In 1954, the CIA helped organize a coup to remove a reformist government from power.  Many believe Guatemala’s civil war may not happened if the CIA had not exercised its influence in the coup.

The United States has tried to make amends since Guatemala’s civil war ended in 1996.  It released 1,400 pages of documents in 1997 about its role in the 1954 coup and the civil war.  Several of those documents have been used in trials in Guatemala.  In 1999, U.S. President Bill Clinton apologized during a visit to Guatemala for the U.S. support during the conflict.

The United Nations estimated more than 200,000 people were killed during the civil war, which lasted from 1960 to 1996.  Human rights advocates have tried for years to have Montt prosecuted.  Montt’s attorneys argue he was never aware of the massacres committed by the army, and they planned to appeal the decision to let the trial move forward.

Also facing trial for the crimes against humanity is former general Jose Rodriguez.

For further information, please see:

Al Jazeera — Meet the First Head of State to Head to Trial in the Americas for Genocide — 31 January 2013

GlobalPost — Final Hearing Starts Before Guatemala Genocide Trial — 31 January 2013

Syracuse.com — Consider This: In Guatemala, Justice Is Delayed, but Not Yet Denied — 31 January 2013

The Washington Post — Judge Begins Accepting Evidence in Genocide Case Against Former Military Dictator Rios Montt — 31 January 2013

The New York Times — Ex-Dictator Is Ordered to Trial in Guatemalan War Crimes Case — 28 January 2013

The New York Times — Accused of Atrocities, Guatemala’s Ex-Dictator Chooses Silence — 26 January 2013

PBS — Timeline: Guatemala’s History of Violence