Obituary - Efrain Rios Montt, ruthless dictator of Guatemala
11 mins ago
Ruthless dictator of Guatemala
Born: June 16, 1926;
Died: April 1, 2018
EFRAIN Rios Montt, who has died aged 91, was a ruthless dictator who seized power in Guatemala in a 1982 coup and presided over one of the bloodiest periods of the country's civil war as soldiers waged a scorched-earth campaign to root out Marxist guerrillas.
A UN truth commission determined that some 245,000 people were killed or disappeared during Guatemala's 1960-1996 civil war, with the vast majority of the killings attributed to the army or pro-government paramilitary groups.
Tens of thousands of those deaths came during Rios Montt's 17-month rule.
Rios Montt was convicted in 2013 of genocide and crimes against humanity for the massacre of 1,771 indigenous Ixil Mayans by security forces under his command.
More:
http://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/16143825.Obituary___Efrain_Rios_Montt__ruthless_dictator_of_Guatemala/
Efraín Ríos Montt and his friend, US Republican President Ronald Reagan, in better days (for them).
