Dos Erres massacre: a second trial for Ríos Montt
A second trial on genocide charges awaits former Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt, after Judge Carol Patricia Flores ruled on May 21 that he could be prosecuted for ordering the Dos Erres massacre, committed by the Guatemalan army on December 7, 1982.
By Louisa Reynolds, Guatemala City
[related-articles]Ríos Montt, 85, took power through a military coup in March 1982 and ruled the country for one year - the bloodiest phase of Guatemala’s 36-year-long civil war. He already faces trial on separate charges of genocide and crimes against humanity for 11 massacres committed in the highland department of Quiché between 1982 and 1983, in which 1,771 Mayan Ixil civilians were slaughtered. After an 8 hour-long hearing, judge Flores opened the way for his prosecution for the Ixil genocide case in January but granted him bail (US$64,000) under house arrest. Flores deemed there was sufficient evidence to link Ríos Montt to the Dos Erres massacre committed by the elite Kaibil unit, in which 201 people were killed.
Kaibil soldier Pedro Pimentel Ríos was given a 6,060 year prison sentence for his participation in the massacre, last February. During that trial, Peruvian military expert Rodolfo Robles Espinoza explained that under the Ríos Montt dictatorship (1982-83), the Army launched a campaign against the guerrillas, as well as communities that supported them - a strategy that the former dictator referred to as “draining the fish from the sea”.
The Victory ’82 campaign was launched in tandem with a specific campaign for the highlands, Plan Sofia, which established that any town with signs of guerrilla activity – weapons caches or communist propaganda – should be considered “subversive” and its entire population destroyed. During Ríos Montt’s hearing, the prosecution stated that although there is no evidence to suggest that the former dictator directly ordered the Kaibil troop to massacre the inhabitants of Dos Erres, he was the architect of state policies that led to this and other human rights violations.
Robles Espinoza’s analysis of the chain of command was also central to the Ríos Montt hearing. The prosecution argued that as head of state and supreme commander of the armed forces he was ultimately responsible for the massacre. Ríos Montt’s lawyers, César Calderón and Luis Rosales, argued that the Dos Erres massacre was committed by rogue soldiers and that although Ríos Montt was indeed the supreme commander of the armed forces he could not be aware of every single action undertaken by a specific unit. “This man is a sacrificial lamb. He never gave any direct orders for the massacre to be committed, and although it is true that every soldier reported back to his superiors it is hardly likely that a soldier would have written a report saying: ‘We raped x number of women in this village’, isn’t it?” said Calderón.
Genocide or murder?
The Attorney General’s Office had asked for Ríos Montt to be tried on 201 counts of murder and crimes against humanity - the same crimes that five members of the armed forces, including Pimentel Ríos have been convicted of. However, Flores ruled that there was sufficient evidence to hold the ageing former dictator accountable for the Dos Erres massacre - but that he should be tried for genocide, not murder.
Ríos Montt will remain under house arrest but was ordered to pay another bail sum of US$64,000.
The next hearing is set for September 11. Lawyer Edgar Pérez Archila, who represents the Association of Family Members of the Detained and Disappeared in Guatemala, was dismayed at Flores’ decision. He said the Dos Erres massacre cannot be considered an act of genocide, as the inhabitants of the village were non-indigenous peasants and were therefore not an ethnically and linguistically distinct group, unlike the Ixil Mayans in Quiché. “A conscious decision was made by the State to eliminate the population of Dos Erres but they cannot be considered to be a national group”, said Pérez.
He argues that by erroneously classifying the case, Flores has opened the door for the defence team to successfully argue that Dos Erres was not an act of genocide and secure Ríos Montt’s acquittal. He added that at the next hearing, the prosecution will seek to prove again that the correct charge is murder.