Last week, in commenting on the May 10 sentencing of former Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt, 86, to 80 years in jail for genocide and crimes against humanity, we were of the view that Guatemala had taken a courageous step towards putting an end to impunity for the perpetrators of such crimes. We did suggest, however, that the verdict might be more symbolic than realistic, given the general’s age and the prospect of a lengthy appeal process.
This week, we must perforce reconsider the outcome of the case, as the country’s highest court, the Constitutional Court, overturned on Monday Mr Ríos Montt’s conviction, by a majority decision of three to two, and ordered that the trial should restart from the point where it stood on April 19. According to a BBC report, the general had been briefly left without legal representation on that day, when his lawyer was expelled from the courtroom for accusing the presiding judge of bias against him. The panel of constitutional judges therefore ruled that the trial should have been halted, to allow the challenges filed by Mr Ríos Montt’s defence attorney to be resolved.
In this respect, the ruling annuls everything that happened in the trial since April 19, including the guilty verdict and sentence. The statements delivered in court before that date will stand but all the testimonies heard from that point onwards and the closing arguments by both sides will have to be given again.
Even if the case is not back at square one, it has been set back by at least a month, with a lengthy process of constitutional challenges and appeals bound to ensue. Not only that, the Constitutional Court’s decision has served to highlight once again the deep divisions that exist in Guatemala, even after 17 years of peace following the end of the 36-year civil war.
The original judgment had given rise to expectations in some quarters that, for the first time, justice had been served with regard to the bloody excesses of General Ríos Montt’s dictatorship and, finally, the voices of the marginalised, indigenous people were being heard. Now, there is profound disappointment in these very quarters.
Amnesty International has called the ruling a “devastating blow for the victims of the serious human rights violations committed during the conflict,” stressing that it raises huge obstacles to ensuring justice and guaranteeing accountability for these crimes during a “heartrending period of history in Guatemala.”
The Office of Human Rights of the Archbishop of Guatemala says that it makes a “mockery” of the legal system in which the Ixil people were just beginning to regain confidence, and sends a clear message that there are sectors that cannot be touched in Guatemala.
Others have criticised the decision as political and not juridical, claiming that the panel bowed to pressure from the Association of Military Veterans of Guatemala, which had threatened to mobilise 50,000 ex-paramilitaries to march on the capital, and the all-powerful private sector body, the Coordinating Committee of Business, Industrial and Financial Associations (CACIF in Spanish), the traditional guardian of the vested interests of the country’s elite.
For Héctor Rosada Granados, a peace negotiator in 1993-96, these sectors are so compromised that they cannot bear to confront the past, as their current wellbeing is but the product of “the plunder committed by their fathers and grandfathers.” The ruling is for him, therefore, representative of a system incapable of accepting the genocide.
On the other hand, even though the proceedings show every sign of entering into a juridical labyrinth, most people would have to agree that there cannot be justice without respect for due process. Notwithstanding the gravity of the crimes of which he is accused, Mr Ríos Montt is entitled to a fair trial and to his time in court, no matter how long it takes, even if, as the harrowing accounts of the massacres perpetrated under his regime attest, his alleged victims were not granted anything remotely resembling a hearing.
The sentence of 80 years in jail has been overturned, for the time being. Even if he does not rot in jail, Mr Ríos Montt will remain in limbo, as the legal battle continues. In a way, the whole country is in limbo. But even if all Guatemalans do not find catharsis in the process, the trial is still an important step not only towards putting an end to impunity but also in bringing to light the truth of their sanguinary past. Hopefully, at some point, they will become reconciled to a future based on respect for the law, not as the protector of the rich and powerful but as the guarantor of fundamental human rights. Mutual respect in such a deeply divided society may however take a while longer.
