Do You Need Further Proof of Rios Montt's Moral Vacuity?

This certainly appears to be a harbinger of what Guatemala can expect from EFraín Rios Montt:

Ismael Mancur was outside his family's hardware store, painting a sign for his senatorial campaign, when a man stepped from the shadows and shot him three times in the chest.

Police have not uncovered direct evidence Mancur's killing was politically motivated, but Mancur was one of 21 candidates and activists slain since Guatemala's election season began, according to groups monitoring events leading up to Nov. 9, the scheduled date for presidential, legislative and local elections. Fifteen others have survived gun or machete attacks.

Opposition parties and human rights organizations say the unusually high level of violence is linked to the controversial comeback effort of former dictator Efrain Rios Montt, presidential candidate of the ruling Guatemalan Republican Front party.

While this is not proof of Rios Montt's party's involvement, read this:

Tom Koenigs, head of the U.N. Mission to Guatemala, said Rios Montt's party "can very easily and very quickly create an atmosphere of fear" throughout the country.

"It's not so much the figure of the general himself that triggers violence as much as it is his very authoritarian party. They've already shown it is easy for them to mobilize a very steady ... very strong stream of antidemocratic demonstrators that can cripple the election process," said Koenigs, who helps monitor Guatemala's adherence to peace accords that ended the country's 1960-1996 civil war.

Rios Montt said he "didn't believe violence had increased" from past election years. But in an interview with The Associated Press, the retired brigadier-general ducked questions about who was behind the attacks.

"I think the passion to be the winner that many supporters have makes certain excesses inevitable," he said. "But I see that as normal." [my emphasis]

God help this country if this man is elected.

Comments

[Michael J. Totten]

Well, if he is elected I'll be able to report first-hand how it goes over. I'll be there myself immiedietly after the election. (Yikes.)

[Michael J. Totten]

By the way, thanks for reporting this stuff. And please keep doing it. I'm interested in Latin America anyway, but especially Guatemala and especially right now, for obvious reasons.

[Joel]

Rios Montt is one of those rare human beings who you can't describe as a glass which is half empty or half full. Someone has drilled a hole through the glass, through the table, through the floor, and well into the sandstone bedrock.