The former strongman's legal argument was that his own coup-leading days had happened prior to the passage of the law and should not therefore come under its perview, and secondly, he argued, that even if the law did apply to him, the law itself was an abuse of General Rios Montt's own human rights.
Rios Montt isn't your everyday despot:
-
Human rights groups say Rios Montt was among the bloodiest dictators in Latin American history. The 1960-96 civil war pitted leftist, largely Mayan guerrillas against the army and killed 200,000 Guatemalans. The war ended with a peace treaty in 1996.
Some Guatemalans were upset with the decision.
-
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Rigoberta Menchu described the court ruling as ``a coup d'etat,'' suggesting Rios Montt's Guatemalan Republican Front party - which controls the presidency and enjoys a majority in Congress - had somehow co-opted the court.
But not everybody.
-
Republican Front officials applauded the decision.
``More than a victory for Gen. Rios Montt, this is a victory for the Guatemalan people,'' said Republican Front congressman Aristides Crespo. ``This shows that only the Guatemalan people can choose their president, not four or ten or twelve lawyers.''
Rigoberta Menchu is so old news. In fact, as I'm sure our friends on the right will insist on emphasizing, to the extent to which they take any notice of this story, some questions about Ms. Menchu's autobiography have been raised. And anyway, she's a Guatemalan indian, and lacking perspective, as does she, most of them are upset.
The current US government commented that it would find it difficult to deal with a Guatemalan government headed by Mr. Rios Montt. I can't imagine why, unless it's because Eliott Abrams is in the Pentagon now, rather than in the State Department.
Rios Montt was hailed in 1982 by Pat Robertson and other American evangelicals, as the last best hope for Guatemala. Rios Montt, unsual for Cental American...uh, leaders, is Protestant.
The 700 Club mobilized on behalf of the General's government, offering aid and even personnel for several of the refugee camps then in Guatemala. The question of why there would be refugee camps inside a country, housing only citizens of that country, did not appear to occur to Mr. Robertson.
Doubtless, his awareness of the pernicious alliance between Priests of the Roman Catholic Church, and the bottom rungs of Central American society, which could only mean an expansion of the Communist menace, allayed any misgivings he might have had.