Former Guatemala dictator Rios Montt, accused of genocide, dead at 91
Guatemala City, (MILLAT ONLINE):Efrain Rios Montt, who ruled Guatemala with an iron fist in the 1980s and was accused of genocide at the peak of its long civil war, died on Sunday at the age of 91.
One of his lawyers, Luis Rosales, told reporters that Rios Montt “died in his home, with the love of his family and a clear conscience.”
Rios Montt, who had been in very poor health for years, was buried in a matter of hours in a small, private ceremony. Relatives and supporters defended him vehemently, saying the man accused of razing indigenous villages had in fact committed no crime.
Protesting relatives of people who died under his rule, however, splashed red paint on the sidewalk outside a former government palace in Guatemala City and on a national flag in a symbol of the blood they said he had shed. They complained that he was never punished.
Rios Montt was accused of ordering the murders of 1,771 indigenous Ixil-Maya people during his short reign in 1982-83, which came at the height of the brutal 36-year civil war.