Efraín Ríos Montt

Who is Efraín Ríos Montt?

José Efraín Ríos Montt is a former de facto President of Guatemala, dictator, army general and former president of Congress.

A General in the Guatemalan Army, Ríos Montt came to public office through a coup d'état on March 23, 1982. In turn, he was overthrown by his Defense Minister, Óscar Humberto Mejía Victores, in another coup d'état on August 8, 1983. In the 2003 presidential elections, he unsuccessfully ran as the candidate of the Guatemalan Republican Front. In 2007 Ríos Montt returned to public office as a member of Congress, gaining prosecutorial immunity, including from a pair of long-running lawsuits alleging war crimes against him and a number of his former ministers and counselors during their term in the presidential palace in 1982-83. His immunity ended on January 14, 2012, when his term in office ran out. On January 26, 2012 Ríos Montt appeared in court in Guatemala and was formally indicted for genocide and crimes against humanity.

Huehuetenango-born Ríos Montt remains one of the most controversial figures in Guatemala. Two Truth Commissions, the REMHI report, sponsored by the Roman Catholic Church, and the CEH report, conducted by the United Nations as part of the 1996 Accords of Firm and Durable Peace, documented widespread human rights abuses committed by Ríos Montt's military regime, including widespread massacres, rape, torture, and acts of genocide against the indigenous population. Supporters maintain that there was no genocide, just a bloody civil war. Ríos Montt, at times, had close ties to the United States, receiving direct and indirect support from certain of its agencies, including the CIA.