On Monday, former de facto leader of Guatemala Efrain Rios Montt was rolled into court on a gurney on day one of his retrial, and that of his co-defendant Mauricio Rodriguez Sanchez, on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. I attended the opening day of the trial in 2013 and there were fireworks then. Although I was no present yesterday, Day 1 of the retrial appears to have been no different.
Rios Montt first tried to avoid attending the proceedings because of his failing health. However, the justices would have none of his antics. In the first trial, it was Rios Montt's attorney who skipped out on day one. I guess they went with another tactic this time. An ambulance brought Rios Montt to court on a gurney wearing some fashionable sunglasses like other infamous criminals. To be fair, though, I don't remember the sunglasses the first time around.
In 2013, I had hoped that Rios Montt would stand up and defend what he did. Take some ownership of the tactics that killed tens of thousands under your watch. There were glimmers of that following the 2013 ruling but, for the most part, Rios Montt has simply sought to obstruct and proclaim his ignorance.
After Rios Montt was brought to the courtroom, the defense asked for Judge Irma Jeannette Valdez's recusal from the case. As I wrote in May 2013, Judge Valdez wrote her master's thesis on the charges of genocide in Guatemala. I thought that her in-depth knowledge of the case would make her a great expert witness for the prosecution, maybe even the defense (I haven't read the thesis), much more than a great impartial judge. It's not as if she wrote her thesis on genocide in general or another country. She refused to voluntarily recuse herself from the case but her colleagues outvoted her. This should have been no surprise.
Given that Judge Valdez could have recused herself or the defense could have asked for her removal anytime in the last 18 months, it is disappointing that the issue was not decided before yesterday. It played right into the hands of the defense which has tried to obstruct and delay at all turns for the last fifteen years. However, I can't imagine that the trial would have been regarded as legitimate given the judge's close connection to the accused's actions. Hopefully, the victims and witnesses who attended yesterday's hearing knew her recusal was likely to occur.
What next? They'll have to find a replacement for Judge Valdez which could take days or months. See the Open Society's International Justice Monitor for more details on yesterday's developments as well as Sonia Perez with the AP.
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