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Efraín Ríos Montt: the story on HearLore | HearLore
— Ch. 1 · Early Life And Military Rise —
Efraín Ríos Montt.
~7 min read · Ch. 1 of 7
Efraín Ríos Montt was born on the 16th of June 1926 into a large ladino family of the rural middle class in Huehuetenango, a small city in the highlands of western Guatemala. His father worked as a shopkeeper and his mother was a seamstress. The family also owned a small farm. He applied to the Polytechnic School, the national military academy of Guatemala, but was rejected because of his astigmatism. He then volunteered for the Guatemalan Army as a private, joining troops composed almost exclusively of full-blooded Mayas. In 1946, he was able to enter the Polytechnic School after all. Ríos Montt graduated in 1950 at the top of his class. He taught at the Polytechnic School and received further specialized training first at the U.S.-run officer training institute that would later be known as the School of the Americas. He trained later at Fort Bragg in North Carolina and the Italian War College. From the start of his career, Ríos Montt acquired a reputation as a devoutly religious man and as a stern disciplinarian.
Religious Conversion And Ideology
In 1978, a spiritual crisis caused him to leave the Roman Catholic Church and join the Iglesia El Verbo, an evangelical Protestant church affiliated with the Gospel Outreach Church and based in Eureka, California. Ríos Montt became very active in his new church and he also taught religion in a school which was affiliated with it. At the time, his younger brother Mario Enrique was the Catholic prelate of Escuintla. His conversion has been interpreted as a significant event in the ascendency of Protestantism within the traditionally Catholic nation of Guatemala. Ríos Montt later befriended prominent evangelists in the US, including Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. Drawing on his Pentecostal beliefs, Ríos Montt compared the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse to the four modern evils of hunger, misery, ignorance, and subversion. He also pledged to fight corruption and what he described as the depredations of the rich. Under the motto No robo, no miento, no abuso, Ríos Montt launched a campaign ostensibly aimed at rooting out corruption in the government and reforming Guatemalan society. He began broadcasting regular TV speeches on Sunday afternoons, known as discursos de domingo.
The 1982 Coup And Junta Rule
On the 7th of March 1982, General Ángel Aníbal Guevara, the official party's candidate, was declared the winner of the presidential election, a result denounced as fraudulent by all opposition parties. An informal group described as oficiales jóvenes then staged a military coup that overthrew Lucas and prevented Guevara from succeeding him as president. On March 23, the coup culminated with the installation of a three-person military junta, presided by General Efraín Ríos Montt and composed also of General Horacio Maldonado Schaad and Colonel Luis Gordillo Martínez. The events of March 1982 took the U.S. authorities by surprise. Because of repeated vote-rigging and the blatant corruption of the military establishment, the 1982 coup was initially welcomed by many Guatemalans. In April 1982, U.S. Ambassador Frederic L. Chapin declared that thanks to the coup of Ríos Montt, the Guatemalan government has come out of the darkness and into the light. However, Chapin soon afterward reported that Ríos Montt was naïve and not concerned with practical realities. The government junta immediately declared martial law and suspended the constitution, shut down the legislature, and set up special tribunals to prosecute both common criminals and political dissidents.
Counter-Insurgency Strategy And Violence
Violence escalated in the countryside under the Guatemalan military's plan Victoria 82, which included a rural pacification strategy known as Fusiles y Frijoles, often rendered into English as beans and bullets, to preserve the original alliteration of its name. The bullets referred to the organization of the Civil Defense Patrols, primarily composed of indigenous villagers who patrolled in groups of twelve. They were usually armed with a single M1 rifle but sometimes they were not armed at all. The beans component of the counter-insurgency strategy referred to programs seeking to increase civilian-military contact and cooperation by improving the infrastructure and resources the government provided to the Mayan villages. Critics have claimed that in practice, Ríos Montt's strategy was a scorched earth campaign which was waged against the indigenous Maya population, particularly in the departments of Quiché, Huehuetenango, and Baja Verapaz. According to the 1999 report by the UN-sponsored Historical Clarification Commission, this resulted in the annihilation of nearly 600 villages. One instance was the Plan de Sánchez massacre in Rabinal, Baja Verapaz, in July 1982, which saw over 250 people killed. Tens of thousands of peasant farmers fled over the border into southern Mexico.
International Relations And U.S. Support
In 1977, the United States under the Jimmy Carter administration suspended aid to Guatemala due to the grave violations of human rights by the Guatemalan government. In 1981, the new Reagan administration authorized the sale to the Guatemalan military of $4 million in helicopter spare parts and $6.3 million in additional military supplies, to be shipped in 1982 and 1983. President Ronald Reagan traveled to Central America in December 1982. He did not visit Guatemala but met with General Ríos Montt in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, on the 4th of December 1982. During that meeting, Ríos Montt reassured Reagan that the Guatemalan government's counter-insurgency strategy was not one of scorched earth, but rather of scorched Communists. Reagan then declared: President Ríos Montt is a man of great personal integrity and commitment. I know he wants to improve the quality of life for all Guatemalans and to promote social justice. Israel, which had been supplying arms to Guatemala since 1974, continued its aid provisions during Ríos Montt's government. The cooperation did not just involve hardware but also included providing intelligence and operational training, carried out both in Israel and Guatemala.
Political Comeback And Electoral Struggles
In 1989 Ríos Montt founded a new political party, the Guatemalan Republican Front. He attempted to register as the presidential candidate for the 1990 general election at the head of a coalition of the FRG and two other political parties. His running mate was the businessman Harris Whitbeck Pinol. Polls indicated that Ríos Montt was the most popular candidate, leading his nearest rival by as many as twelve points. The courts prevented that formula from appearing on the ballots based on the constitutional ban. Throughout the 1990s Ríos Montt enjoyed significant popular support throughout Guatemala and especially among the native Maya population of the departments of Quiché, Huehuetenango, and Baja Verapaz. In March 2003, the FRG nominated Ríos Montt for the November presidential election. However, his candidacy was rejected again by the electoral registry and by two lower courts. On the 14th of July 2003, the Constitutional Court approved his candidacy for president on the grounds that the prohibition in the 1985 Constitution did not apply retroactively. On the 24th of July, thousands of masked FRG supporters invaded the streets of Guatemala City armed with machetes clubs and guns.
Genocide Trials And Legal Legacy
On the 26th of January 2012, he appeared in court in Guatemala City and was formally indicted by Attorney General Claudia Paz y Paz for genocide and crimes against humanity. The trial began on the 19th of March 2013 marking the first time that a former Latin American head of state was tried for genocide in his own country. On the 10th of May 2013, Ríos Montt was convicted by the court of genocide and crimes against humanity and was sentenced to 80 years imprisonment. Announcing the ruling Judge Iris Yassmin Barrios Aguilar declared that the defendant is responsible for masterminding the crime of genocide. She continued We are convinced that the acts the Ixil suffered constitute the crime of genocide. On the 20th of May 2013, the Constitutional Court of Guatemala overturned Ríos Montt's conviction on the grounds that he had not been allowed an effective defense during some of the proceedings. The retrial had not been completed when Ríos Montt died in April 2018 and the court therefore closed the case against him. His co-defendant former chief of military intelligence José Mauricio Rodríguez Sánchez was acquitted in September 2018 although the court found that the counter-insurgency strategy of the Guatemalan army had amounted to genocide.
When was Efraín Ríos Montt born and where did he grow up?
Efraín Ríos Montt was born on the 16th of June 1926 in Huehuetenango, a small city in the highlands of western Guatemala. He grew up into a large ladino family of the rural middle class whose members included his father who worked as a shopkeeper and his mother who worked as a seamstress.
What religious conversion did Efraín Ríos Montt undergo in 1978?
In 1978, Efraín Ríos Montt left the Roman Catholic Church to join the Iglesia El Verbo, an evangelical Protestant church affiliated with the Gospel Outreach Church based in Eureka, California. This spiritual crisis marked a significant event in the ascendency of Protestantism within the traditionally Catholic nation of Guatemala.
How did Efraín Ríos Montt come to power during the 1982 coup in Guatemala?
On the 23rd of March 1982, a military coup culminated with the installation of a three-person junta presided by General Efraín Ríos Montt alongside General Horacio Maldonado Schaad and Colonel Luis Gordillo Martínez. The informal group known as oficiales jóvenes overthrew President Lucas and prevented General Ángel Aníbal Guevara from succeeding him as president.
What counter-insurgency strategy did Efraín Ríos Montt implement under Plan Victoria 82?
Efraín Ríos Montt implemented a rural pacification strategy known as Fusiles y Frijoles or beans and bullets which included organizing Civil Defense Patrols composed primarily of indigenous villagers. Critics claim this strategy was a scorched earth campaign waged against the indigenous Maya population that resulted in the annihilation of nearly 600 villages according to the 1999 report by the UN-sponsored Historical Clarification Commission.
When was Efraín Ríos Montt convicted of genocide and what happened to his sentence?
On the 10th of May 2013, Efraín Ríos Montt was convicted by the court of genocide and crimes against humanity and sentenced to 80 years imprisonment. The Constitutional Court of Guatemala overturned his conviction on the 20th of May 2013 because he had not been allowed an effective defense during some of the proceedings before the case closed following his death in April 2018.