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After 13 failed appeals, a\u00a0Guatemalan court on Monday ordered 86-year-old former US-backed dictator Efrain Rios Montt to face charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n
“Prosecutors allege Rios Montt, who ruled as commander-in-chief for 17 months, turned a blind eye as soldiers used rape, torture and arson against leftist insurgents and targeted indigenous people during a ‘scorched earth’ military offensive that killed at least 1,771 members of the Ixil tribe,” Reuters reports.<\/p>\n
Rios Montt wasn’t the only one turning a “blind eye.” He came to power in a military coup and “was a close ally of Washington who\u00a0received training<\/a>\u00a0at the infamous \u201cSchool of the Americas<\/a>,\u201d writes<\/a>\u00a0Cyril Mychalejko. The Reagan administration…<\/p>\n not only\u00a0covered up<\/a>, but\u00a0aided and abetted war crimes<\/a>\u00a0and genocide in Guatemala. For example, President Reagan traveled to Guatemala in December 1982 to\u00a0declare<\/a>\u00a0that Rios Montt was getting a \u201cbum rap\u201d, while praising the dictator\u2019s \u201cprogressive efforts\u201d and dedication to democracy and social justice. Just a few days after Reagan\u2019s presidential visit the Guatemalan military\u00a0massacred<\/a>\u00a0251 men, women and children in\u00a0Las Dos Erres<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The United States was party to an extensive list of human rights violations and possible crimes against humanity going back to the Eisenhower administration, when in 1954 the democratically elected government of Jacobo Arbenz was\u00a0overthrown in a coup orchestrated by the CIA.<\/a><\/p>\n The 1960-96 conflict in Guatemala, with consistent US intervention on the side of the government and paramilitary groups, saw some 200,000 people, predominantly indigenous Mayan, murdered or disappeared. The height of the bloodshed occurred under US ally and beneficiary R\u00edos Montt, during which the number of killings and disappearances\u00a0reached more than 3,000 per month.<\/a><\/p>\n