A Spanish judge Friday issued an international arrest order for two former
Guatemalan military dictators,
Efrain Rios Montt, (Congressman Jerry Weller's Father-in-law and head of the FRG, Weller's wife's politcal party) and Oscar Humberto Mejia Victores, along with five others accused of genocide during Guatemala's civil war.
A ruling by Spain's constitutional court in 2005 allowed its tribunals to hear cases involving crimes against humanity, even if Spanish citizens were not affected.
The director of the Rigoberta Menchu Foundation, Eduardo de Leon, said the failed attempt to hear testimony in Guatemala doesn't prevent the judge from continuing with the case. De Leon said the legal process in Spain wasn't going to stop because the hearings couldn't take place here in Guatemala. The judge has weighed the situation and decided to proceed in this way.
Guatemalan authorities (which include the FRG political party founded by Rios Montt and his daughter and Congressman Weller's Wife, Zury Rios-Montt de Weller) have said the generals cannot be extradited for political crimes committed during the country's 36-year civil war under a 1996 amnesty law.
Besides General Rios Montt, the judge ordered the capture and detention of former presidents Oscar Humberto Mejia Victores and Fernando Romeo Lucas Garcia, and four high-ranking security officials who worked under their administrations.
During General Rios Montt's 18 months in power from 1982, his anti-insurgency campaigns killed thousands of people and destroyed hundreds of Indian villages.
Above excerpt take from a Voice of America from Guatemala City Report
If this were a democratic congressman from this district, from this congress, the Republican adminstration, via Karl Rove, would be using this for maxium political advantage to point out how corrupt the the Democrats are. But once again, democrats show they lack spine, and the news media show they lack interest in any type of real news coverage, especially our local republican slanted 11th congressional district news media.
Imagine if this were Mayor Daley, or Ted Kennedy or, heaven forbid, Rod Blaogjevich (hmmmmm.... never mind) or Nancy Pelosi's father-in-law? Imagine if one of them had their wedding ceremony in a genocidal murderers' home and let him preside at the wedding? What a field day Fox news and the Republican party and yes, the Daily Journal, the Morris Herald, the Joliet Herald, the Ottawa Times, the Bureau County or La Salle papers would all be having were this a democratic congressman.
But it's not. So it hasn't made the front page of any local, let alone national papers, hasn't even made it inside the papers. Once again proving that the vast left wing political conspiracy take over by the press and American culture is just a myth.
The real take over has been by people like extreme right wing republicans like Congressman Weller and his nutty evangelical father-in-law and his four time married wife who calls her father "her inspiration."
Rios Montt was by this time a lay pastor in the evangelical protestant "Church of the Word." In his inaugural address, he stated that his presidency resulted from the will of God. He formed a three-member military junta that annulled the 1965 constitution, dissolved Congress, suspended political parties and cancelled the electoral law. After a few months, Rios Montt dismissed his junta colleagues and assumed the de facto title of "President of the Republic." 2002 U.S. Government Report on Guatemala
People and pundits who criticize using the word "Nazi" in relation to the current crop of Bush republicans just don't get it. By the time we can completely and correctly use the word Nazi to define the Republican party, it will be too late.
CIA Fact book on Guatemala