The trial of Guatemala’s former U.S.-backed dictator Efrain Rios Montt opened with testimony from the relatives of the people murdered during the 36-year civil war.

Rios Montt is charged with crimes against humanity in the killings of more than 1,700 native Guatemalans who died under his anti-insurgency program.  Prosecutors say he allowed his soldiers to use rape, torture, and murder against suspected Leftists, but mostly against the native Mayan Ixil group.

Survivors described watching their families murdered before their eyes before they were able to escape into the woods during the chaos.  Later when they were able to return, they found nothing – farms, homes, livestock, all wiped out under Rios Montt’s scorched earth policy.

Roughly 200,000 civilians, mostly Mayans, were killed.  Another 45,000 “disappeared”.

Rios Montt is not charged with any of the murders that occurred during his rule in 1982-1983 because of a constitutional quirk that protects ex-congressmen.

Genocide trials are rare for Latin America’s former dictators.  Human Rights advocates hope this is a turning point in the region’s history.