After 2020, most of us realise that a lot can go wrong in 13 months. But if you’re from Guatemala, you probably know that already.
That’s because of dictator Efrain Rios Montt, whose short but eventful tenure still traumatises the nation to this day.
Guatemala is a central American country thats far enough away from America to not be that well known but close enough that its of strategic interest to them.
Early Career
Born in 1926, Montt joined the Guatemalan army at the tender age of 17. Early on, Ríos Montt gained a reputation as extremely religious and a stern disciplinarian. By 1973, he had risen to Chief of Staff and was deployed to the USA.
While in the US, Montt was approached by the leaders of the Guatemalan Christian Democracy with an invitation to oppose the regime that was in place at the time and run for president. He agreed, participated in the March 1974 presidential elections and got beaten worse than a donkey pinata at a kid’s birthday party.
The loss hurt his ego so badly that he retired from the army, ditched the Roman Catholic Church and joined the Iglesia El Verbo ("Church of the Word"), a charismatic church. Montt temporarily retired to a quiet life of prayer, meditation and teaching the Bible.
How He Came To Power
Meanwhile, in the world of politics, a dude named General Ángel Aníbal Guevara won the 1982 presidential election. The opposition denounced the result as fraudulent. And with sore losers being the theme, a group of army bros aligned with the other political parties and staged a coup. The immediate result was the installation of a three-man military junta, presided by none other than General Efraín Ríos Montt.
Huh? Where did he fit in? Wasn’t he off spreading the good news?
Yes. Yes, he was.
But, you see, because of the alleged vote-rigging and endemic government corruption, the coup was welcomed by many Guatemalans. Montt was asked to join the new dispensation because his reputation for honesty and vision of "education, nationalism, an end to want and hunger, and a sense of civic pride" was a panacea to what had come before.
Rios Montt speaks after the 1982 coup. Image from socialistworker.org
Even the Americans bought the dream. Fun fact: Montt’s later rule was supported by American evangelical Christians (because those guys have a long and proud track record of being on the right side of politics). Look, I’m not saying anything, but when one of your biggest supporters is Pat Robertson, you should probably rethink exactly what it is you stand for.
At any rate, even the politicians were smitten. In April 1982, the U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala declared that thanks to the coup, "the Guatemalan government has come out of the darkness and into the light".
That proved to be very untrue.
Rios Montt’s Reign Of Terror
"The Guatemalan government has come out of the darkness and into the light"
The three-headed junta immediately declared martial law and suspended the constitution. They also shut down the legislature, and set up special tribunals to prosecute common criminals as well as political dissidents - which really was a catch-all phrase for “anyone the big chiefs didn’t vibe with.”
Not the most encouraging start.
But on the flipside, Montt launched an anti-corruption campaign with the tagline, No robo, no miento, no abuso ("I don't steal, I don't lie, I don't abuse"). He also broadcast regular TV speeches on Sunday afternoons, which were great if you needed something to lull you into a nap. These speeches eventually became little more than moralizing sermons from the former preacher. So if you thought you’d successfully bunked church, tough cookies.
Image from The Boston Globe
Against this backdrop, and making matters worse, Guatemala was in the throes of a long civil war. One of the longest in Latin American history, in fact.
It all started in 1954 when the CIA helped overthrow the country’s President (as they do). His misdemeanour? Daring to propose that land that was occupied by private American companies be re-distributed to locals.
Montt hob-nobbing with American President, Ronald Reagan. Image from foreignpolicy.com
6 years later, an armed revolution to overthrow the military government kicked off what was to become a 36-year conflict between the government and rebel groups made up mostly of peasants in the countryside.
There’s little doubt that the violence peaked during the 80’s. Initially, Montt’s government offered amnesty for all insurgents who would lay down their weapons. A cute gesture but probably not all that serious given that the government wasn’t willing to address any of the concerns that had caused the war in the first place.
The lack of response to the amnesty offer provided a convenient excuse for the government to declare a state of emergency. This effectively meant that political parties and labour unions were banned. Perfect conditions for Rios Montt to do whatever the heck he wanted.
And whatever the heck he wanted is precisely what he did.
The abuses of the civilian population by the army often amounted to overkill (no pun intended). Civilians in "red" areas were beheaded, burned alive, or hacked to death with machetes. Soldiers were said to kill children in front of their parents by smashing their heads against trees and rocks. 18,000 killings by government forces in the year 1982. In April 1982 alone (Montt's first full month in office), the military killed about 111 people per day. This guy was putting up Giannis Antetokounmpo in the NBA Finals numbers.
You’d think that Montt, as a Christian, would have condemned this behaviour. But actually, he justified the massacres by saying that the villagers were "communists and therefore atheists and therefore [they] are demons and therefore you can kill them."
Which...okay.
Not much more needs to be said about Montt’s goons aka the Guatemalan army.
How He Lost Power
Well, understandably, it didn’t take long for Montt to become hated.
By mid-1983, Montt had survived 3 attempted coups. Fed up, he declared a state of emergency and announced elections for July 1984. He didn’t last to that point though.
Montt’s outspoken evangelicalism and moralizing sermons began to piss off the backsliders and heathens. It didn’t help that many Catholics, who were the vast majority of Guatemala’s population, didn’t really jive with the content. The army was also hacked by Montt’s promotion of young officers, which was basically a slap in the face of the traditional hierarchy. Many middle-class citizens were also unhappy with Guatemala’s new VAT, which wasn’t even 2%.
About a week after the tax was implemented, the Minister of Defense overthrew the regime in a violent coup during which 7 people were killed.
Oscar Mejia Victores - the former Minister of Defence who would depose Montt.Image from The Independent
It would seem sensible for Montt to go quietly into the night but unadulterated power has a way of sucking you back in.
Rios Montt Returns
In 1989, he founded the Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG) political party. He couldn’t actually run for President because the 1985 Constitution banned people who had participated in a military coup from being president. Montt complained that this provision was created specifically to prevent him from returning to the Presidency. And that actually sounds probable.
Nonetheless, for most of the 1990s, Montt had support throughout the country; especially from the native Maya population. Ironically, this group was the one most directly affected by Montt’s massacres of 1982-83. Stockholm syndrome was all too real.
"They are communists and therefore atheists and therefore [they] are demons and therefore you can kill them."
In 2003 Montt tried to run for President again. The Supreme Court wasn’t having it and suspended his campaign. A flustered Montt got onto the radio and called on his followers to take to the streets to protest against the court’s decision.
In scenes out of Washington DC in January 2021, thousands of masked FRG supporters, who had been bussed in from around the country, invaded the streets of Guatemala City. Armed with machetes, clubs, and guns, they blocked traffic, chanted threatening slogans, and marched on the courts, the opposition parties' headquarters and newspapers.
Rios Montt supporters run riot. Image from BBC.
These cats torched buildings, shot out windows and burned cars and tires in the streets. A television journalist even died of a heart attack while fleeing from the mob. After two days of this malarkey, the rioters disbanded when an audio recording of Montt was played in loudspeakers telling them to back off and go home.
After all this, Montt didn’t even win the election. He finished in 3rd place with 19.3% of the vote which begs the question: what was the point?
Criminal Trials
In 1999, a Guatemalan citizen filed a complaint before the Spanish National Court against Montt and others for torture, genocide and state-sponsored terrorism. Apparently, Spanish courts could try non-Spanish nationals for crimes against humanity.
Search warrants were issued for Montt and friends.
In January 2007, Montt announced that he would run for a seat in Congress in the election to be held later in the year. As a member of Congress, he would be immune from prosecution. How convenient.
Because life is a simulation, he won.
But it was temporary relief. Montt's immunity ended on January 14, 2012 and just 2 days later, he was arrested and tried. On 10 May 2013, Montt was convicted for genocide and crimes against humanity and was sentenced to 80 years in prison. This was the first time that a sitting President was to be found guilty of war crimes in a court of law.
Rios Montt testifies at his trial.Image from LA Times.
Montt got a lifeline when the Constitutional Court of Guatemala overturned the conviction on the grounds that he had not been allowed an effective defence during the proceedings. Montt's retrial began on January 2015, but the court later ruled that the no sentence could be carried because Montt was too old and frail to go to jail.
In April 2018, Ríos Montt died from a heart attack - by all accounts, a free man.
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