Three-Man Junta Led By Ríos Montt At Press Conference Following Coup
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The leaders of the three-man military junta General Horacio Maldonado Shaad, left, General Efraín Ríos Montt, center, and Colonel Francisco Luis Gordillo Martínez, right, sit during a press conference at the National Palace to announce a successful military coup d'état, Guatemala City, Guatemala, March 23, 1982. Ríos Montt soon appointed himself president and minister of defense, dissolved the congress, and suspended the constitution, ushering in the most violent period of Guatemala's armed conflict. Ríos Montt has since been indicted and tried for genocide and crimes against humanity against the country's Maya Ixil population with the legal proceedings extending until his death on April 1, 2018. Gordillo Martínez was sentenced to 33 years in prison on May 23, 2018 along with four other high-ranking military ex-officials for crimes against humanity and aggravated sexual assault against Emma Guadalupe Molina Theissen and for the forced disappearance of her 14 year-old brother, Marco Antonio Molina Theissen, in 1981.
