Anniversary of Guatemalan peace accords in shadow of amnesty

Emi MacLean writing at the International Justice Monitor and Jo-Marie Burt at NACLA take a look at recent events in Guatemala as we head to the re-start of the Efrain Rios Montt trial set to begin January 5th.

Jo-Marie and Emi review previous decisions by various Guatemalan courts that have led to the present state of affairs in Guatemala. They, like many others, fear that the courts might soon overturn previous amnesty decisions which would prevent the start of a new trial. Guatemalan and international law would seem to make it impossible to allow amnesty in the case of genocide and crimes against humanity but stranger things have happened.

Should that occur, there would most likely be some international condemnation of Guatemala and a renewed effort to move the trial abroad. Guatemalan elites might prefer international condemnation for applying amnesty in the case rather than international condemnation for a ruling confirming that they committed genocide and crimes against humanity. For those against the trial, they are confronted with a lose-lose decision.

For the victims, I hope it does, but I've been pretty pessimistic about the trial actually restarting in January.

The Guatemalan Government and the URNG officially ended the thirty-six year conflict with the signing of The Agreement on a Firm and Lasting Peace on this date in 1996.