Not Writing History (US media silence on Rios-Montt trial)

[Judi Lynn]

Last edited Thu Jun 13, 2013, 10:00 PM - Edit history (1)

Not Writing History
Written by Sara Kozameh
Tuesday, 21 May 2013 14:29

Ten days ago Guatemalan courts convicted former dictator General Efraín Ríos Montt, to 80 years in prison for charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. Though the ruling has just been overturned on technical grounds, it was the first time that a country has been able to use its own criminal courts to try a former head of state for genocide, arguably making it one of the most important court decisions in decades. Despite the significance of the ruling, not just for what it represents for the more than 200,000 victims of the genocide and their families, but also for human rights worldwide, the mass media in the U.S. has mostly ignored the U.S. role in contributing to and supporting the genocide.

The New York Times provided a couple of exceptions in the last week. Its “Room for Debate,” feature, which is regularly published online but not in the print edition, and allows perspectives from a broader political spectrum than is normally permitted in news articles or even the op-ed page, published a range of opinions on the extent of U.S. support and complicity for the Ríos Montt regime. And last week the New York Times published an exceptional print article about the role of the U.S. government in Guatemala, Reagan’s financial and fervent military support for Ríos Montt’s bloody dictatorship, and how this aspect of the genocide had been conspicuously absent during the trial against Ríos Montt.

Amazingly, the Washington Post chose not to report at all on the historic ruling in their print edition following the day of the ruling. Although stories on corruption scandals in India, a detained youth activist in Egypt, and voting in Pakistan did make the international section of the print edition of that day’s Washington Post, the Post found no space to print this story. Two days after the conviction was announced (and after it made headlines around the world), and buried deep in the digest section of Sunday’s print international section were a total of 73 words dedicated to what it said human rights activists called “a historic moment” in Guatemala.

More:
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/the-americas-blog/not-writing-history

[Judi Lynn]

1. In Guatemala, A Long Road To Justice

In Guatemala, A Long Road To Justice
By Marta Molina

Two weeks ago, Guatemala’s Constitutional Court overturned the historic guilty verdict of the nation’s former military dictator Efraín Ríos Montt, who had been convicted of committing genocide and crimes against humanity during his short reign from 1982 to 1983. The Constitutional Court’s decision annulled Montt’s 80-year prison sentence and ordered that the final weeks of the case be retried. At 86 years old, Ríos Montt was the first former head of state in Latin America to be sentenced for genocide by his own country.

In response, human rights organizations across Latin America organized actions protesting the sentence annulment, supporting the victims of genocide and condemning legal impunity. In Guatemala, an estimated 5,000 people marched through the capital on May 24. Simultaneous actions occurred in front of the Guatemalan embassies in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Mexico City, Mexico; Managua, Nicaragua; Lima, Peru; Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula in Honduras. Additional protests occurred in El Salvador and Costa Rica.

Competing interests

David Oliva, a member of the human rights organization HIJOS Guatemala, said that the march in Guatemala was the biggest mobilization he has seen around the issue of memory and unmasking impunity in the justice system.

“Today there are more people out than the day that Guatemala mobilized to protest the assassination of Monseñor Gerardi,” he said, referring to the Guatemalan bishop and human rights defender who was murdered two days after the 1998 publication of the groundbreaking report Guatemala: Never Again. The report compiled hundreds of testimonies about crimes committed during the nation’s protracted civil war and genocide against indigenous communities, and it laid the groundwork for Montt’s subsequent trial.

More:
http://www.zcommunications.org/in-guatemala-a-long-road-to-justice-by-marta-molina