ABSTRACT
On 10 May 2013, a Guatemalan tribunal sentenced former army general Efraín Ríos Montt to 80 years in prison for genocide and crimes against humanity committed 30 years earlier during the country’s internal armed conflict. Ríos Montt, Guatemala’s de facto president from March 1982 until August 1983, became the first former head of state anywhere to be tried and sentenced for core international crimes in a domestic court in his home country. For thousands of victims and their families, for human rights defenders at home and abroad, and for all those seeking accountability for the atrocious crimes committed during the Guatemalan conflict, that sentence was an unprecedented achievement, a symbol of justice in a country uncomfortably used to impunity.
