Former Guatemalan general and de facto president dies

Retired Guatemalan general, Oscar Humberto Mejia Victores, died at the age of 85. Mejia Victores served as defense minister during the Efrain Rios Montt administration but ascended to power in 1983 when Rios Montt was removed via coup. From Harrison Smith at The Washington Post:

Seventeen months later [after Rios Montt came to power in a coup], Gen. Mejía Victores came to power on his own. In what was “more a palace revolt than a government upheaval,” as one anonymous Western diplomat told the New York Times, Gen. Mejía Victores ousted Ríos Montt amid discontent in the military over the president’s assertive leadership style and outspoken brand of evangelical Christianity.

The new regime, Gen. Mejía Victores said, would return Guatemala to democratic rule and end abuses by “religious fanatics.” (The country is predominantly Catholic.)

When it was revealed that Gen. Mejía Victores had met with officials of the U.S. military’s Southern Command the day before the coup, speculation swirled that the United States had sponsored the coup in some way. The State Department denied any involvement or advance notice.

The Reagan administration, which thought Ríos Montt a “well-intentioned but eccentric leader,” according to a Times dispatch, was optimistic that Gen. Mejía Victores would follow through on his promises as well as eliminate the secret tribunals that had executed and “disappeared” the regime’s political opponents.

In that regard, the portly general was little different from his predecessor, who was known to critics as the “born-again butcher” for the remorseless killing of civilians and political targets. Under Gen. Mejía Victores, political killings continued at a rate of 90 to 100 per month, according to a Times account in 1984.

Prosecutors had attempted to hold him accountable for human rights violations, including genocide. However, his health prevented authorities from bringing him to trial. Another person who will leave this earth before having his day in court.