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 / The long road to justice

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However, on May 21, 2012, Ríos Montt was under house ar-
rest in connection with the Ixil genocide case and all of the 
appeals lodged by his defense lawyer had been rejected. And 
now he faced a new trial for the murder of 201 civilians in 
the village of Dos Erres, who had been bludgeoned to death 
by the army and thrown into the well built by Saúl Arévalo’s 
father. 

The pride and stiffness had collapsed, exposing an old man 
with grey hair and a grey moustache, who knew that History 
had returned to haunt him and that it was very likely that he 
would spend the rest of his days in prison. 

In February this year, during the trial of Kaibil soldier Pedro 

Pimentel Ríos for his participation in the massacre, Peru-

vian military expert Rodolfo Robles Espinoza explained that 

under Ríos Montt’s de facto rule (1982-83), the army had 

launched a counterinsurgency campaign to wipe out guer-

rilla groups and the communities that purportedly supported 

them, a strategy that the former dictator often referred to as 

“draining the sea that the fish swim in.”

Ríos Montt’s testimony was extensively quoted during Ríos 

Montt’s trial. The prosecution stated that although there is 

no evidence to suggest that the former dictator directly or-

dered the massacre, he was undoubtedly the architect of the 

State policies that led to this as well as many other human 

rights violations.

Robles Espinoza also analyzed the “chain of command”, 

that is to say the vertical line through which every member 

of the armed forces, from a foot soldier to a general receives 

orders and must inform his superiors of the results achieved 

after every operation. This was also quoted during the Ríos 

Montt trial, as the prosecution argued that he had become 

the final link in that “chain of command” after he staged the 

1982 military coup and proclaimed himself supreme com-
mander of the armed forces.