The former dictator of Guatemala, Efraín Ríos Montt, is dead. The former head of state died at age of 91 in his house of heart failure, as one of his lawyers reported. The ex-general was under house arrest in his apartment. There was a lawsuit against him for genocide.
Ríos Montt had been in power in Guatemala from March 1982 to August 1983. Although he was overthrown by a military coup, he remained politically active and ran for president in 2003 in democratic elections. He failed, however.
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In a year-long process, Ríos Montt was accused of genocide and crimes against humanity. In May 2013, a court sentenced ex-dictator to 80 years in prison, but Guatemala’s constitutional Court annulled verdict for procedural errors a little later. A new process kept stalling, was discontinued in May 2016 and was not resumed until end of 2017. According to his lawyers, Ríos Montt suffered from dementia and did not take part in court proceedings.
According to indictment, Ríos Montt was head of State responsible for assassination of 1,771 members of indigenous Ixil ethnic group. Ríos Montt led Guatemala at height of 36-year civil war of country. He was supposed to have initiated a targeted annihilation policy against Ixil, who were n suspected of collaborateing with leftist guerrilla groups. During Ríos Monti’s reign, more than 400 villages were destroyed, number of civilian casualties was several thousand.
