We try to stay topical here at CWR, and with both of these individuals making headlines, we’ll be splitting up our time railing on both of them.
Let’s start with General Efrain Rios Montt, former Guatemalan dictator. Montt has just managed to get his April 19th conviction overturned by a constitutional court.
What was he convicted for?
Genocide.
Yep, the little over a year Montt was in power he managed to produce the highest casualty rates of the entire 30-year civil war. Fearing that the country’s impoverished, indigenous Mayan population were aiding the Marxist rebels, Montt ordered the brutal slaughter of tens of thousands of villagers, and forced hundreds of thousands more to flee in the wake of his campaign of terror and intimidation. In fact, Montt managed to rack up an average of 3,000 “dissapeared” Guatemalans a month.
And it looks like he’s going to walk.
Apparently, during his trial for crimes against humanity, Montt’s lawyer was temporarily expelled from the courtroom after hurling accusations of bias against him (the lawyer, not the genocidal dictator) from the presiding judge. As Montt was technically “without representation” during that time, his sentence has been- for now- overturned.
Now I believe everyone, no matter how despicable, should have the right to a fair trial, but this is just insane. I’m no lawyer, but am I crazy for imaging that the more reasonable solution to that would be to strike that particular section from the record, rather than hitting reset on a genocidal maniac? If it was just some petty criminal, would he be given the same leniency a former blood-thirsty dictator is getting?
And speaking of blood-thirsty dictators, did you know Burma’s chief military goon is currently in the land o’ the free and home of the brave?
That’s right, Thein Sein, Burmese prime minister. You know, the guy who blocked aid when his own people were devastated by the 2008 cyclone? The guy who proposed the “resettlement” of the Rohingya ethnic and religious minority? The guy who participated in the oppression and outright killing of other “undesirable” ethnic minorities? The guy who controls a heavily militarized state that brutally puts down any opposition through violence and censorship?
Sheesh, who on earth would let this dirtbag so much as set foot on…
…
But hey, at least Thein Sein is being met with on some secluded military base or in some UN conference chamber, right? He and his bloodthirsty junta aren’t being legitimized in anywa-
They’re in the White House?
This is the GIF I use when the president does… anything…
Did I miss something here? Obama was cool with killing Bin Laden who orchestrated the deaths of thousands, but kill tens of thousands and oppress millions and you get your pathetic “reforms” praised in a White House sit-down?
Look it’s bad enough that one genocidal dictator is (for now) getting out of his 80 year sentence, do we really have to have another actually get legitimized?
Yeah, I don’t think so either.
Montt, Thein Sein- you know the drill.
