Guatemala may be about to oust Rios Montt prosecutor
Guatemala may be about to oust Rios Montt prosecutor
By Benjamin Reeves
McClatchy Foreign Staff
February 25, 2014 Updated 12 hours ago
GUATEMALA CITY — Attorney General Claudia Paz y Paz is a small, soft-spoken woman with the quiet mannerisms of an academic, which she is. But she also displays a dogged perseverance that has made her a champion of human rights and the rule of law. And that may put her out of a job soon.
On Wednesday, Guatemala’s highest court will her a final round of arguments on whether Paz y Paz should fill a full four-year term that the constitution stipulates or only the remainder of the term of the previous attorney general, whom she replaced. If the Constitutional Court rules in favor of the latter – and it’s already said that’s the decision it favors – Paz y Paz, 46, will be out in May.
It would be a stunning end to a term in public office marked by all-but-unprecedented crusades against corruption and “impunity,” the idea that military officers and top government officials would never be prosecuted for atrocities that occurred while they were in charge.
Paz y Paz’s greatest triumph came last May, when prosecutors under her won the conviction of former President Efrain Rios Montt on charges of committing genocide against the indigenous Ixil Maya during the early 1980s as part of a 36-year civil war.
More:
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/2014/02/25/2973071/guatemala-may-be-about-to-oust.html#storylink=cpy
