Guatemala City
Guatemala’s highest court ruled this week that former dictator Efrain Rios Montt could run for president in November, despite a ban on candidates who have taken power by force. The retired general led a coup in 1982, and cracked down on Guatemala’s leftist rebels. Activists accused his 18-month regime of the worst massacres in Guatemala’s 36-year civil war, which ended in 1996. Rios Montt, 77, said he should be allowed to run because the ban was adopted after he left power. “Only the Guatemalan people can choose their president,” an ally said. Rigoberta Menchu, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, said the court was packed with the general’s cronies, so the ruling amounted to another “coup d’état.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
-
The next Supreme Court case could spell the end of Purdue PharmaTalking Point The court is weighing in on a potential settlement involving the long-maligned company
-
Is it time to do something about the Insurrection Act?
Today's big question New worries over an old law have prompted calls for legislative change ahead of Trump's potential return to office
-
'The bigger airlines get, the worse they become'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
