The victims of Guatemala's civil war waited decades for justice, and finally got it when José Efraín Ríos Montt was found guilty of genocide. But in a matter of only a few weeks, justice was cruelly snatched away.
Guatemala's constitutional court shockingly overturned the conviction against the former dictator, throwing out all proceedings against him as a result of a dispute over who should have overseen the trial.
Ríos Montt was found guilty in mid-May of overseeing the deliberate killings by the armed forces of at least 1,771 members of the Maya Ixil population during his 1982-83 rule. He was sentenced to 80 years in prison. But the constitutional court threw out all proceedings in the case, saying that the trial against Ríos Montt should have been suspended in order to resolve a disagreement between judges over who should have overseen the case.
If the Guatemalan people can't rely on its government or the judiciary for justice, who can they rely on?
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