Guatemalan voters weigh violent crime, a general's past

The soaring crime rate is one of the top campaign issues in presidential elections today, and some voters are advocating a return to heavy-handed government by supporting one of the country's most infamous former dictators.

Peace accords ended 36 years of civil war in 1996, but Guatemalans have struggled to enforce the rule of law. According to the federal attorney general's office, violent crime killed 8,120 people in 2001 and 8,767 in 2002.

Supporters of retired General Efrain Rios Montt, a distant third in pre-election polls, argue he is the only one who can control this poor Central American nation accustomed more to war than peace.

His critics, however, worry he would be a return to Guatemala's dark past. Rios Montt has been blamed for some of the worst human rights abuses during the war, which killed more than 200,000 people, most of them civilians.

The former evangelical minister seized power in a 1982 coup, then launched a scorched-earth campaign. Human rights groups say soldiers were ordered to burn down villages and kill anyone suspected of aiding rebel groups.

Human rights groups in Guatemala and Spain have accused Rios Montt's government of carrying out massacres, including the 1981 arson of the Spanish Embassy in Guatemala City in which 37 people died. Officials in both countries are investigating the charges.

President Reagan backed Rios Montt's government, but today US officials warn against giving him a second chance.

"In light of Mr. Rios Montt's background, it would be difficult for the United States to have the kind of relationship with Guatemala that we would ideally prefer if he were in charge," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Friday.

Despite his past, Rios Montt still maintains a strong base of support among Guatemalans tired of violence. Some rural villages have even taken justice into their own hands, hunting down suspected criminals and killing them in acts of mob vengeance. The latest polls showed Rios Montt with a little over 10 percent of the vote, far behind the two front-runners.

Former Guatemala City mayor Oscar Berger and center-left candidate Alvaro Colom of the National Union of Hope party are running in a dead heat, with roughly a third of the votes each.

Many worry that Rios Montt and his supporters won't accept defeat. Amnesty International released a report Friday warning of violent uprisings. "The violence could seriously distort the electoral process and the legitimacy of its outcome," the report said. It cited at least 21 election-related killings and 46 threats against journalists in recent months.