Court OKs Guatemalan Ex-Dictator’s Candidacy

Guatemala’s highest court ruled 4-3 that former dictator Efrain Rios Montt can run for president in November, sparking outrage Tuesday from human rights groups and a request from opposition politicians that election officials ignore the decision.

The court, whose previous judges denied the ex-general’s petition in 1990 and 1995, voted to permit his participation in the elections despite a law that bans the candidacy of anyone who has seized power in a coup.

Rios Montt, 77, took power in a military coup in March 1982 but was deposed in a military uprising nearly 18 months later.

He had argued that the electoral ban on coup leaders, formalized in the 1985 constitution, could not be applied retroactively.

The ruling followed a series of rejections by lower courts, the most recent of which had come July 5 from Guatemala’s second-highest tribunal.

“We are asking people to hang black ribbons from their cars and houses in a sign of mourning,” Oscar Berger of the National Advancement Party said, adding that opponents of the Constitutional Court’s late-Monday ruling planned a massive protest this weekend.

Representatives of four political parties asked Guatemala’s federal electoral tribunal to ignore the court decision and prohibit Rios Montt from running.

In a news release, human rights activists called for a protest in front of the court.

“Amnesty International is gravely concerned that human rights protection under a Rios Montt government could deteriorate further still,” said Roddy Brett, Guatemala campaign coordinator for the rights watchdog.

Rios Montt presided over some of the worst human rights abuses of Guatemala’s 36-year civil war. The 1960-96 conflict killed 200,000 Guatemalans.

Opponents said the court’s decision was a farce given that three of the four judges who voted in favor of Rios Montt’s petition have current or past links to the administration of President Alfonso Portillo, a friend of Rios Montt.