Efraín Ríos Montt

Friend of the show Hugo Turner joined me this week to discuss Elliot Abrams and his legacy in Central America and role in the Iran-Contra affair. We began by discussing the roots of Iran-Contra and why it is still largely ignored by the media. Hugo discussed the origins of the affair going all the way back to the October Surprise in 1980. We talked about the other events that opened the door into Iran-Contra including the attempted assassination of Contra leader Eden Pastora in Costa Rica. Hugo and I then explored Abrams role in Iran-Contra itself.

As the U.S. declares a new government in Venezuela, we look back at how the Reagan administration promoted human rights violations in Guatemala, including genocide inflicted on Indian villages, as the late Robert Parry reported on Feb. 21, 2013. By…Read more →

Brave prosecutors in Guatemala are trying to enforce accountability for government-sponsored rapes, tortures and murders in the 1980s, a time when President Reagan and his administration were complicit in the atrocities but remain respected U.S. figures, as Allan Nairn explained to Dennis J Bernstein. By Dennis J Bernstein Comedian-turned-politician Jimmy Morales, who was sworn in as…

teleSUR | August 12, 2015 Former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt was released from a psychiatric hospital Tuesday, after undergoing seven days of tests that effectively delayed his retrial for charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. Attorney Jaime Hernandez, who is part of Rios Montt’s defense team, confirmed that psychiatrists had finished their assessment […]

Twenty-five years ago this week, six Jesuit scholars at the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) in El Salvador opened the doors of their residence to members of a government death squad, who had been armed and trained by the United States. The soldiers marched the priests to the back garden. They were ordered to lie face down. They were shot and killed like dogs along with their housekeeper and her teenage daughter.

By Kevin Young | NACLA | July 22, 2013

By Robert Parry | Consortium News | May 23, 2013

At the height of Guatemala’s mass slaughters in the 1980s, including genocide against the Ixil Indians, the Reagan administration worked with Israeli officials to provide helicopters that the Guatemalan army used to hunt down fleeing villagers, according to documentary and eyewitness evidence.

Press TV – May 21, 2013

Guatemala’s top court has overturned the genocide conviction of the country’s former dictator Efrain Rios Montt, ordering his trial to restart.
The move came on Monday, about ten days after a three-judge panel convicted the 86-year-old of genocide and crimes against humanity, sentencing him to 80 years in prison.

By Allan Nairn | May 11, 2013

General Efrain Rios Montt has been found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity.  He has already begun his “irrevocable” sentence of 80 years in prison.
The court that convicted Rios Montt has also ordered the attorney general to launch an immediate investigation of “all others” connected to the crimes.