#Nightslantern Suppressed News / January 10, 2018 news update -- nightslantern.ca: #Guatemala
18.1.18
Guatemala: as noted December
21, the trial of
Rios Montt has resumed despite years of corrupt legal tactics and delays. The
initial trial found Rios Montt guilty of genocide and was invalidated on
technical grounds. Now Rios Montt is beyond the reach of punishment due to
medical and mental infirmity. Guatemala's impunity in attempts to eradicate
portions of its Indigenous population risks encouraging impunity by other
fascist leaders. Rios Montt's initial trial raised the awareness that the U.S.
through training, advisors and the initiation of supposed anti-terror programs,
as well as Israel, through training and arms supply, were complicit in the
atrocities of Guatemala's military under the orders of Rios Montt. Both
governments (with Honduras and smaller nations) are of the nine nations who have
defied international law and assigned Jerusalem to Israel. In Guatemala a
government program is trying to disenfranchise the country's ability to
prosecute the crimes of mass slaughter protected by powerful foreign interests.
To interject an historical note
here: the investigation
and trial of Rios Montt could occur because The
International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), initially a
UN sponsored effort to initiate a standard of justice in the country, over some
years strengthened the Attorney General's Office and impartiality of the courts
allowing investigation and prosecution of atrocities. Back in 1999 the
Commission for Historical Clarification, sponsored by the U.N., had found
Guatemala responsible for acts of genocide against the Mayan Ixil but
Guatemala's legal system was faced with criminal networks run by the government.
Progress: in March 2018, the High Risk Court "C" will bring to trial 5 former
high ranking military officers who were thought to be beyond justice, and are
charged with the 1981 detention and abuse of Molina Theissen and on her escape
to Mexico the 'disappearance' of her 14 year old brother. The previous president
Pérez Molina (who as a young officer directly participated in the genocide of
Ixil Maya) was removed from office for corruption. So
the prosecution of Rios Montt is the result of sacrifices and risks to their
lives of many brave people. The current president Jimmy Morales continually
referred to as a former TV comedian, is attempting to banish from the country
Iván Velázquez, as the head of The International Commission
Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG). It's an attempt to terrorize all
concerned with human rights including the judges whose 2013 conviction of Rios
Montt has required protection of their lives and integrity from the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The enduring impunity of a Guatemalan
elite which allowed if not encouraged the crime to proceed in the past,
continues a genocide
warning for the country's Indigenous people. If the
impunity of the elite is successful in Guatemala, the defenses against genocide
elsewhere will be damaged and should raise genocide warnings for all Indigenous
groups in the Americas.
Partial
sources online: "High-Profile Molina Theissen Trial to Start in Guatemala in
March 2018," Jo-Marie Burt, Oct.27, 2017, International
Justice Monitor;
"CICIG, Leader of Anti-Corruption Efforts in Guatemala, Under Siege (Part I),"
Jo-Marie Burt and Paulo Estrada, Oct. 2, 2017, International
Justice Monitor;
"The Anti-CICIG Campaign in Guatemala: Implications for Grave Crimes Cases (Part
II)," Jo-Marie Burt and Paulo Estrada, Oct. 4, 2017, International
Justice Monitor;
"Bodies emerge from Guatemala’s war-era ‘model villages’," Dec. 30,
2017, BBC
News;
"CICIG, Leader of Anti-Corruption Efforts in Guatemala, Under Siege (Part I),"
Jo-Marie Burt and Paulo Estrada Oct. 2, 2017, International
Justice Monitor;
"CIDH ordena proteger a jueces en Guatemala," Aug. 7,
2013, International
Center for Transitional Justice.
My essays on Guatemala include "Guatemala: a brave judiciary"(2013), "Masks of Investment: a Trial in Guatemala" (2013), "Good vs. Evil in Guatemala" (2013), "Genocide Denial in Guatemala" (2013).
--
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Dispatch: Aboriginal Press Media Group |
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