After a U.S.-backed coup ousted its democratically elected government, Guatemala, a small Central American country, endured a brutal civil war that lasted more than three decades, from 1960 to 1996. Tens of thousands of Guatemalans went missing and 200,000 of its citizens were killed during the conflict, mostly by state security forces.
Now, relatives of the victims have a symbolic victory all these years later. Just last week, a Guatemalan court ordered a former military dictator, Efrain Rios Montt, to stand trial on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.
The charges against the general are a direct result of what filmmakers captured in a 1983 documentary called “When the Mountains Tremble.” During Montt’s 17-month rule in the early 1980s, the dictator allowed a young woman, Pamela Yates, to accompany and film him on a helicopter mission as he led troops on a crackdown against leftist guerrillas in the Mayan highlands. “Granito” is a 2011 documentary about that originalRead More »from Guatemala Dictator to Stand Trial on Genocide Charges