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Guatemala hands over key file in army genocide case
Guatemala's government handed over a military document last week containing evidence the country's army massacred villagers during a time in which it was heavily backed by the United States. The document could help prosecute top officials for genocide.
A copy of a military file dating from the 1980s, with detailed information about an operation known as "Plan Sofia," was mailed anonymously to President Alvaro Colom last year.
Colom's government verified its authenticity and passed it to the attorney general's office, which has a long-running case against the Central American country's former dictator, Efrain Rios Montt, accusing him of ordering the murder of thousands of civilians.
The document was also turned over for use in a parallel case in Spain, brought by Mayan human rights activist Rigoberta Menchu, which accuses Rios Montt of carrying out genocide during his 1982-83 rule.
Nearly a quarter million people, mostly native Mayans, died during the 36-year-long civil war pitting leftist guerrillas against security forces. Ríos Montt had close ties to the United States who gave him aid to fight against the guerrillas. He attended the controversial US Army School of the Americas in 1950 and four years later played a minor role in the successful CIA-organized coup against President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán.
Rios Montt, now 83, still serves in Guatemala's Congress.
A U.N.-backed Truth Commission report found the army committed 85 percent of the killings, but this is the first time a military document might be able to link the highest chain of command to human rights violations in a court of law.