Guatemalan police on Friday arrested a former military chief of staff in the mass killing of government opponents during the country's 36-year civil war, the highest-ranking official yet detained for massacres in the 1980s.
Retired Gen. Hector Mario Lopez, 81, was allegedly involved in about 200 massacres committed while he was chief of staff of the Guatemalan military between 1982 and 1983, said prosecutor Mynor Melgar. He faces charges of genocide and forced disappearance, a category of crime in which the victim has never been found.Rios Montt apparently also told a local radio station that he would be willing to face justice for what he is accused of having done in the 1980s - genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, etc. However, as a congressman for the FRG, he is currently immune from prosecution. He could always voluntarily give up his immunity.
And an invitation from Plaza Publica should you be in Guatemala.
- Will the arrest of such a high ranking official have any impact on current presidential candidate Otto Perez Molina?
- Will Salvadoran authorities feel any pressure to lift the 1993 amnesty and begin prosecutions?
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