Guatemala’s Congress approved a non-binding resolution that denies there was any attempt to commit genocide during the Central American country’s bloody 36-year civil war.  The resolution was introduced by a legislator from the party founded by former dictator Efrain Rios Montt, the former dictator accused of genocide.

“This shows that they aren’t really looking for reconciliation, but rather there’s an ideological point they're trying to make,” said opposition congressman Leonel Lira, who added the resolution “create more divisions in Guatemalan society.”

Relatives and representatives of the victims say the lawmakers’ decision is feckless and offensive. 

“It can’t be denied that there was genocide, our proof is the more than 1,771 human remains,” said Diego Rivera, leader of the Movement of Victims in Northern Quiche.  “No one can hide there were several massacres.  That’s a racist attitude.”

The 1960-96 Guatemalan civil war pitted a series of US-backed dictators against Leftist movements.  An estimated 250,000 indigenous Guatemalans were slaughtered, especially during the fascist regime of Rios Montt, 1982-83.  Two separatist truth commissions – one sponsored by the United Nations, the other by the Roman Catholic Church – uncovered widespread human rights abuses committed by Rios Montt’s forces, including widespread massacres, rape, torture, and acts of genocide against the indigenous population, which Rios Montt suspected of colluding with the Leftists.