Guatemalan Activist Defends Bid for Trial
Lawyers for Guatemalan Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu on Thursday defended her attempt to have three former dictators tried in Spain for racial genocide against Guatemala’s indigenous Maya population.
Spain’s High Court previously ruled that it had grounds to prosecute former Chilean ruler Augusto Pinochet and Argentina’s ex-military leaders on similar charges, and Menchu said the same rules apply because genocide is a “universal crime.”
The court in March agreed to investigate Menchu’s charges that the three ex-dictators and five aides committed atrocities during Guatemala’s 35-year civil war, which killed 200,000 people.
A report by Guatemala’s Truth Commission blames the military for 90% of the killings, disappearances and human rights abuses during the war. Of those killed, 83% were from Maya ethnic groups.
State prosecutors argued that Spain had no jurisdiction over crimes committed outside its territory. They also argued that the cases should not be heard in a civil court because they took place against a backdrop of war.
But Menchu called their position a “decision to defend the Guatemalan state and the mass murderers.”
The accused include Gen. Efrain Rios Montt, Fernando Romeo Lucas Garcia and Oscar Mejia Victores, who ruled from 1978 to 1986.
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