The trial of the first Latin American dictator to face genocide charges has been suspended on orders of Guatemala’s Supreme Court.  Efrain Rios Montt had been accused of ordering the genocide of an indigenous group he thought was assisting leftist rebels.

Rios Montt has denied the charges.

The rationale is that the judge was taken off the case in November 2011 and recently reinstated.  The high court ordered the judge to reset the trial back by 15 months.  It is unclear if Judge Carol Patricia Flores will reinstate the criminal proceedings, of if the 86-year old will walk.

Flores also faced pressure from government officials who feared that opening old wounds would stir up fresh violence.

Rios Montt took control of Guatemala in 1982 in a coup d'etat, and quickly curried the favors of the Reagan Administration in Washington, D.C. with his anti-communist credentials.

(Warning:  The following material contains graphic descriptions of the violence of the era)

But things quickly descended into atrocities and gruesome violence.  Rios Montt allegedly ordered the executions of at least 1,771 members of the Ixil Maya people.  Human Rights advocates note that women suspected of guerrilla sympathies were raped before execution. 

Human Rights and Environmental attorney Stephen L. Kass prepared reports on the Rios Montt regime’s atrocities under the "fusiles y frijoles" (guns and beans) policy which gave food to friendly tribes and fired bullets at perceived enemies.  Kass says that children were "thrown into burning homes. They are thrown in the air and speared with bayonets. We heard many, many stories of children being picked up by the ankles and swung against poles so their heads are destroyed."

(Warning:  The above material contains graphic descriptions of the violence of the era)

Reagan had reversed his predecessor Jimmy Carter’s restrictions on providing aid to abusive regimes.  A document in the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California from April 1981 showed the Reagan Administration’s active approval of exterminating not only “Marxist guerrillas” but also people associated with their “civilian support mechanisms.”

By April 1983, the group Americas Watch was condemning the atrocities in widespread press reports.  By August of that year, Rios Montt was deposed.  He escaped trial for decades by various amnesties and later served as a congressman.