Former Guatemala dictator Efrain Rios Montt, who was facing a judicial trial for his alleged involvement in a merciless Mayan genocide, has passed away due to some kind of heart related ailment.
He was one of the most ruthless military leaders the world ever witnessed. He took the helm of Guatemala during the early 1980s through a military coup at the time the country was witnessed a bloody civil war between the military and far-leftist rebels. Soon after he took the control of the administration, he launched a violent clampdown. It was alleged that at his behest an entire village of Mayan community was wiped out by the army from the earth for allegedly harbouring the far-leftist rebels against which the country’s military was fighting. As many as one thousand and seven hundred Mayans were killed in the crackdown executed in the aforementioned Mayan village in Guatemala by the military.
Even though he was ousted from the position by his own defence minister a couple of years after his induction, he was not bought before the legal system then for his involvement in the civil war crimes as he succeeded in entering the parliament, the position which offers immunity from all kinds of legal procedures, soon after his removal from the top office.
When he was finally bought before the legal system in the year 2013, he was sentenced to nearly eighty years imprisonment by a national court. But, the sentence was suspended by the top court of the country.
He was the first dictator who faced a legal trial in his own country for serious Human Rights violation charges such as genocide.
During his last days, there were confusions among the legal experts, rulers and lawmakers whether the old dictator should be put through retrial or not as he was suffering from serious memory loss.
Anyway, he has been undergoing a retrial in the Mayan genocide cases since the year 2015.
Vignesh. S. G
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