Guatemala‘s struggle to deal with the war crimes of the past, including bringing an aging former dictator and his officers to justice, has taken a sharp turn to the present.
A mechanic testifying at the genocide trial of ex-strongman Efrain Rios Montt, now 86, became the first person to directly accuse current President Otto Perez Molina of ordering pillaging and executions in the 36-year civil war, which killed a total of 200,000, mostly indigenous Maya.
Such rumors and accusations had surfaced about Perez before, but without proof or formal charges. He has called Thursday’s testimony “lies.”
But the national talk continued Monday, four days after Hugo Reyes told a stunned courtroom: “The soldiers, on orders from Major ‘Tito Arias,’ better known as Otto Perez Molina … coordinated the burning and looting, in order to later execute people.”
Prosecutor Orlando Lopez said Reyes’ testimony is 100 percent credible, but he has to study the accusations before he can say whether they would result in criminal action against Perez.
“Right now I’m focused on the Rios Montt case,” Lopez said Monday. “I don’t know what will happen after that.”
Perez said he researched Reyes’ record with the Defense Ministry and the mechanic wasn’t in Nebaj, the base in western Quiche state where soldiers operated at the same time as Perez.
“I have nothing to hide. I did not participate in a single situation where someone died that was my responsibility,” Perez told reporters on Friday. “I’m not going to deny that I was in Nebaj; it’s true. But I was there to rescue the civilians, combat the armed guerrillas and help the civilians.”
The testimony is shaking up Guatemala‘s attempts to settle its past. A U.N. truth commission said state forces and related paramilitary groups were responsible for 93 percent of the killings and human rights violations that it documented. Yet until now, only low or middle-level officials have been prosecuted for a war that ended in 1996.
Rios Montt is the biggest by far, on trial along with his former head of intelligence, Jose Sanchez, in connection with the deaths of 1,771 Mayan Indians during the military dictatorship he headed from March 23, 1982, to Aug. 8, 1983, during which he led a U.S.-backed counterinsurgency against guerrillas.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News