Guatemalan ex-dictator's daughter announces presidential bid

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Guatemalan ex-dictator's daughter announces presidential bid
Apr 17, 7:45 PM EDT
By SONIA PEREZ D.
Associated Press

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) -- The daughter of Efrain Rios Montt, the former dictator facing charges of genocide for massacres committed during his 1982-83 regime, is running for president of Guatemala. Zury Rios Sosa, a three-time member of congress, announced Thursday that she would accept the nomination of the Christian conservative Vision with Values party to compete in general elections later this year.

~ snip ~

Rios Sosa married Jerry Weller, who at the time was a Republican U.S. congressman from Illinois, in 2004.

She was 14 years old when her father, an army general, seized power in a coup. The regime he led suspended the constitution and launched a brutal campaign against political dissidents.

In 2013, he was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity for the killings of 1,771 Mayan Indians by soldiers under his command. A court later overturned the ruling, and a retrial that was supposed to begin in January has been delayed.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_GUATEMALA_DICTATORS_DAUGHTER?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-04-17-18-34-34

---

[center]

Zury Rios Sosa and former Republican Rep. Jerry Weller [/center]

[forest444]

1. Stands to reason.

Ríos Montt's benefactor, Poppy Bush, has after all had two of his brats run for the Presidency themselves.

[MisterP]

2. sorta looks like Efrain, no?

ditto Tojo's granddaughter

[Comrade Grumpy]

3. Her daddy is a world class war criminal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efra%C3%ADn_R%C3%ADos_Montt

José Efraín Ríos Montt (Spanish pronunciation: [efɾaˈin ˈri.os ˈmont]; born June 16, 1926) is a Guatemalan politician who was President of Guatemala from 1982 to 1983. An army general, his time in office was marked by the Guatemalan Civil War. Years later, he served as president of Congress.

A general in the Guatemalan Army, Ríos Montt came to public office through a coup d'état on March 23, 1982. In turn, he was overthrown by his Defense Minister, Óscar Humberto Mejía Victores, in another coup d'état on August 8, 1983. In the 2003 presidential elections, he unsuccessfully ran as the candidate of the Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG). In 2007 Ríos Montt returned to public office as a member of Congress, gaining prosecutorial immunity, including from a pair of long-running lawsuits alleging war crimes against him and a number of his former ministers and counselors during their term in the presidential palace in 1982-83.[1][2] His immunity ended on January 14, 2012, when his term in office ran out. On January 26, 2012 Ríos Montt appeared in court in Guatemala and was formally indicted for genocide and crimes against humanity.[3]

Huehuetenango-born Ríos Montt remains one of the most controversial figures in Guatemala. Two Truth Commissions, the REMHI report, sponsored by the Roman Catholic Church, and the CEH report, conducted by the United Nations as part of the 1996 Accords of Firm and Durable Peace, documented widespread human rights abuses committed by Ríos Montt's military regime, including widespread massacres, rape, torture, and acts of genocide against the indigenous population. Supporters maintain that there was no genocide, just a bloody civil war.[4] Ríos Montt, at times, had close ties to the United States, receiving direct and indirect support from several of its agencies, including the CIA.[5]

Ríos Montt is best known outside Guatemala for being tried for heading a military regime (1982–1983) that was partly responsible for having defeated the guerrillas through the "guns and beans" campaign, maintaining "If you are with us, we’ll feed you, if not, we’ll kill you".[6] Guatemala's 36-year civil war ended with the signing of a peace treaty in 1996. The civil war pitted Marxist rebels against the Guatemalan state, including the army, with huge numbers of civilians, both indigenous Mayas and mestizo Ladinos, caught in the crossfire. Up to 200,000 Guatemalans were killed and missing during the conflict, making it one of Latin America's most violent wars in modern history.

Indigenous Mayas suffered disproportionately during Ríos Montt's rule, and it is documented that his government deliberately targeted thousands of indigenous people since many were suspected of harboring sympathies for, supporting, or participating in the guerrilla movement. Under the Cold War-era strategy of containment the Guatemalan state sought to eliminate the spread of communism inside its borders. The UN-backed Historical Clarification Commission found that the resulting counterinsurgency campaign, significantly designed and advanced during Ríos Montt's presidency, included deliberate "acts of genocide" against the indigenous population.[7][8]

On 28 January 2013, judge Miguel Angel Galves opened a pre-trial hearing against Ríos Montt and retired General José Mauricio Rodríguez Sánchez for genocide and crimes against humanity.[9] On 10 May 2013, Ríos Montt was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity, and was sentenced to 80 years imprisonment.[10] On 20 May 2013, the Constitutional Court of Guatemala overturned the conviction.[11][12] His retrial began January 2015.[13]

[Judi Lynn]

4. "Guns and beans" is Rios-Montt's contribution to the people of the earth.

He'd let you live, albeit in stark poverty, if he believed you supported him.

A fundie right-winger preacher, "ordained" in the U.S., in California, at a holy roller organization, he had the total support and funding from the ignorant poor people who sent their envelopes with their tithe tributes to the tv evangelists, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and others, and he had the constant praise, and financial support (thanks to US taxpayers) from Ronald Reagan.

"Guns and beans." Have you ever heard anything more evil? Ronnie handed out the cash so Efrain Rios-Montt could kill more native citizens, go really big in his genocide.

Isn't it sad so few US citizens even know what happened in Guatemala? I was one until only a few years ago, I am so damned sorry to say.

[cosmicone]

5. She is hot !! n/t

[radicalliberal]

7. I'm a straight guy, but I wouldn't touch her with a 10-foot pole.

I find her to be utterly repulsive. Bad character has a way of diminishing the appeal of physical beauty. She's a rotten human being if she's not troubled by her father's war crimes. There doesn't seem to be any evidence that she is. She's probably a lot more despicable than Eva Braun was. Speaking as a Christian, I must also say that people like her cause the faith to be evil spoken of. Disgusting!

[Judi Lynn]

6. NY Times: The Illinois Congressman and the Dictator's Daughter

The Illinois Congressman and the Dictator's Daughter
By STEPHEN KINZER
Published: July 10, 2004

BLOOMINGTON, Ill., July 9 - A love story that raises memories of bloody repression in Central America has suddenly intruded into Illinois politics. Representative Jerry Weller, a Republican from the small farm town of Morris, surprised friends and supporters this week by announcing that he was engaged to a member of the Guatemalan congress. His fiancée, Zury Ríos Sosa, is the daughter of Gen. Efraín Ríos Montt, a former Guatemalan dictator who presided over one of the most brutal military campaigns in modern Latin American history.

Mr. Ríos Montt, who is under house arrest pending trial on charges of organizing a political riot last summer, remains a major political figure in Guatemala. His daughter has for years been one of his principal advisers and strategists.

Because Mr. Weller is a member of the House Committee on International Relations and sits on its Western Hemisphere subcommittee, his newly announced tie to one of Guatemala's most notorious political figures has added spice to his re-election campaign. His opponent, Tari Renner, a political science professor at Illinois Wesleyan University, has made it a campaign issue.

"At the very least, Weller needs to repudiate the Ríos Montt regime and his party, and also resign from the international relations committee," Mr. Renner said. "This is not about private life. It's a matter that could affect not just policy, but national security. National security is not a personal issue. Genocide is not a personal issue."

More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/10/national/10illinois.html

[FLPanhandle]

8. I don't assume children are the same as their parents politically

Also, I reject the whole "sins of the father" passing onto the children concept.

Does anyone know what are her political positions are?

[mopinko]

9. me too.

she has been in the congress there, she has a record.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

11. Christian Conservative Vision with Values Party.

Do you have to know anything else?

[radicalliberal]

12. Judging from this bit of info, --

-- I think it's safe to assume that she has no problem with the atrocities her father committed or simply refuses to believe the reports of atrocities. Either way, I hope she loses and her political ambitions come to naught. Perhaps she favors another military dictatorship.

[radicalliberal]

13. Neither do I.

For example, one of the leading liberal activists in Hungary is László Rajk Jr. Both his father and uncle were leaders in totalitarian movements. The uncle was the Foreign Minister of the fascist Arrow Cross regime during the last year of World War II, after which he fled to the West. The ill-fated father was a leading figure in the Stalinist regime who set up the dreaded AVO (secret police). Obviously, the son has rejected their totalitarian heritage.

But what sort of record does the former dictator's daughter have? Has she sincerely repudiated her father's crimes, or does she represent the interests of those who supported his brutal regime? If anyone has any detailed information about her record, I'd be glad to see it. But I'm doubtful just as I would have been if, say, a segregationist such as James Eastland, Strom Thurmond, or Lester Maddox had had a daughter who ran for public office in later years and claimed to not be a racist.

[a la izquierda]

14. She's an evangelical Christian.

Like Dad. She's an evangelical Christian, married to a former Republican congressman who was considered to be one of the most corrupt. She used to work for the very right wing FRG.

I'd say the rotten apple didn't fall far from the tree.

[Corey_Baker08]

10. I Wonder How Much Congressman Weller Paid For His Bride?

Unfortunately mail order brides are still an ongoing issue & to me it's disgusting & a form of human trafficking & I condemn it

[a la izquierda]

15. Probably nothing.

Elite right wingers run in the same circles. Her father was close friends with the likes of Falwell and was/is respected by American politicians.

[Octafish]

16. ''Dull. Duller. Dulles.''

Diego Rivera absolutely pegged the War Party with this painting, Glorious Victory. The canvas-mounted mural tells the story of the CIA's overthrow of the democratically elected government of Guatemala in 1954. It's a painting that probably won't be in demand for display in any national gallery in Washington, D.C., although it should be. Here's the story, courtesy of Mark Vallens and Art for Change.

Diego Rivera: Glorious Victory!

Mark Vallens
Art for Change
Friday, October 05, 2007

EXCERPT…

Painted in 1954, the mockingly titled Glorious Victory has as its subject the infamous CIA coup of the same year that overthrew Guatemala’s democratically elected government. At the center of the mural, CIA Director John Foster Dulles can be seen shaking hands with the leader of the coup d'état, Colonel Castillo Armas. Sitting at their feet is an anthropomorphized bomb bearing the smiling face of U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower - who gave orders to launch the military coup. In the background, a priest can be seen officiating over the massacre of workers, many of which can be seen lying slaughtered in the painting’s foreground.



The head of the Central Intelligence Agency at the time of the coup, Allen Dulles, and the U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala during the coup, John Peurify, are depicted handing out money to various Guatemalan military commanders and fascist junta officials, as Mexican Indian workers slave away at loading bananas onto a United Fruit Company ship. I might add that Allen Dulles was on the board of directors of the United Fruit Company when the U.S. overthrew the government of Guatemala.

CONTINUED…

http://www.art-for-a-change.com/blog/2007/10/diego-rive...

Here's more on the misunderremembered history:

Guatemala 1953-1954

While the world watched

excerpted from the book
Killing Hope
by William Blum

Third World Traveler

To whom does a poor banana republic turn when a CIA army is advancing upon its territory and CIA planes are overhead bombing the country?

The leaders of Guatemala tried everyone-the United Nations, the Organization of American States, other countries individually, the world press, even the United States itself, in the desperate hope that it was all a big misunderstanding, that in the end, reason would prevail.

Nothing helped. Dwight Eisenhower, John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles had decided that the legally-elected government of Jacobo Arbenz was “communist”, therefore must go and go it did, in June 1954.

In the midst of the American preparation to overthrow the government, the Guatemalan Foreign Minister, Guillermo Toriello, lamented that the United States was categorizing “as ‘communism’ every manifestation of nationalism or economic independence any desire for social progress, any intellectual curiosity, and any interest in progressive liberal reforms.”

SNIP…

The centerpiece of Arbenz’s program was land reform. The need for it was clearly expressed in the all-too-familiar underdeveloped-country statistics: In a nation overwhelmingly rural, 2.2 percent of the landowners owned 70 percent of the arable land; the annual per capita income of agricultural workers was $87. Before the revolution of 1944, which overthrew the Ubico dictatorship, “farm laborers had been roped together by the Army for delivery to the low-land farms where they were kept in debt slavery by the landowners.”

SNIP…

The first plan to topple Arbenz was a CIA operation approved by President Truman in 1952, but at the eleventh hour, Secretary of State Dean Acheson persuaded Truman to abort it. However, soon after Eisenhower became president in January 1953, the plan was resurrected. Both administrations were pressured by executives of United Fruit Company -- much of the vast and uncultivated land in Guatemala had been expropriated by the Arbenz government as part of the land reform program. The company wanted nearly $16 million for the and, the government was offering $525,000, United Fruit’s own declared valuation for tax purposes.

United Fruit functioned in Guatemala as a state within a state. It owned the country’s telephone and telegraph facilities, administered its only important Atlantic harbor, and monopolized its banana exports. A subsidiary of the company owned nearly every mile of railroad track in the country. The fruit company’s influence amongst Washington’s power elite was equally impressive. On a business and/or personal level, it had close ties to the Dulles brothers, various State Department officials, congressmen, the American Ambassador to the United Nations, and others. Anne Whitman, the wife of the company’s public relations director, was President Eisenhower’s personal secretary. Under-secretary of State (and formerly Director of the CIA) Walter Bedell Smith was seeking an executive position with United Fruit at the same time he was helping to plan the coup. He was later named to the company’s board of directors.

CONTINUED…

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/Guatemala_KH.htm...

Who’s to say they wouldn’t do this at home?

Guatemalan Agent of C.I.A. Tied to Killing of American

By TIM WEINER
New York Times
March 23, 1995

A Guatemalan military officer who ordered the killings of an American citizen and a guerrilla leader married to an American lawyer was a paid agent of the Central Intelligence Agency, a member of the House Intelligence Committee said today.

The intelligence agency found out about the killings ordered by the Guatemalan colonel on its payroll, but concealed its knowledge for years, the committee member, Representative Robert G. Torricelli, said in a letter he sent today to President Clinton.

Moreover, the State Department and the National Security Council learned the facts months ago but did not tell the guerrilla's widow, Jennifer Harbury, who has been petitioning the White House to disclose her husband's fate, the letter said.

A member of the Senate intelligence committee, which has been briefed on the two killings, confirmed the gist of the statement by Mr. Torricelli, a New Jersey Democrat.

"The direct involvement of the Central Intelligence Agency in the murder of these individuals leads me to the extraordinary conclusion that the agency is simply out of control and that it contains what can only be called a criminal element," the letter to the President said.

CONTINUED…

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE4D7...

It's a good bet Bush and his bosses have been thinking about remodeling America into the Guatemalan model. If you think not: Why would the GOP be doing all they could to destroy unions? Why would they be stacking the courts with Federalist Society statists and right-wing property rights advocates? Why else would they be privatizing intelligence from gathering to wet work? Why would Halliburton be building internment camps across the U.S.A.? They're certainly not public make-work programs.

2007 OP w/replies -- before the crash and bailout of the banksters who stole trillions.