It was announced on Monday that the former Guatemalan dictator, Efraín Ríos Montt, is to face a second trial for charges of genocide.

The ex-dictator was also charged in January for crimes against humanity, human rights abuses and genocide. His year long de facto rule is considered as the height of violence in Guatemala’s 36-year conflict.

Guatemalan judge Patricia Flores stated that she had found enough evidence connected the former leader to a 1983 massacre.

Known as Las Dos Erres, is generally considered to be one of the biggest atrocities of the country’s conflict. Around 20 soldier entered the Dos Erres village, who had been ordered to search for weapons. 201 men, women and children were then strangled, shot and beaten with a sledgehammer, before their dead bodies were thrown into a well.

El Universal reported that Ríos Montt expressed his innocence, stating: “Under army law, I am pleading innocent your honour.”

His defense claim that since the de facto leader was not present physically, he cannot be charged.

Five other soldiers have been sentenced since August in connection to Las Dos Erres, each with a sentence lasting more than 6000 years, particularly significant since Guatemalan law limits prison sentences to just 50 years.

Ríos Montt is currently under house arrest.

In a controversial move, Chile has announced plans to change the terminology in school textbooks regarding the political administration of General Augusto Pinochet.

The 17-year military rule, which is currently referred to as a “dictatorship”, will be called a “regime” in future textbooks.

The decision, according to centre-right government officials, is not politically motivated, but is aimed at using more general terms to describe the era.

Left-wing groups, however, are accusing the government of whitewashing a part of history in which over 3,000 people were murdered and many others tortured and illegally detained.

Education Minister Harald Beyer, of the National Education Council, said the change is about using a term that is used around the world to refer to military governments. He also added that he had no problem recognising that Pinochet’s government was, in fact, a dictatorship.

The current president of Chile is Sebastián Piñera, the first conservative leader the country has had since its return to democracy in 1990. Much of his support comes from a right-wing political party that favoured General Pinochet.

On Monday, Uruguay’s Supreme Court declared the amnesty law unconstitutional. It is in a case against former president, Juan María Bordaberry.

The Amnesty Act 1986 prevents the military and police to be tried for violations of human rights committed during the military dictatorship of the country between 1973 and 1985. According to the decision of the Court, the law may not be applied in the case that had investigated 20 murders committed under the government dictatorship of Bordaberry.

Now, the prosecution and the courts may now judge those who participated in those events.

The record corresponds to a complaint made by several human rights organizations to accuse the former dictator, Bordaberry, of being responsible for the deaths of 20 people during his administration.

The highest Uruguayan court had declared it the amnesty law unconstitutional in the case of murder in 1974 of the militant communist, Nibia Sabalsagaray.

Meanwhile, the Senate debated a bill that was promoted by the ruling Broad Front (Frente Amplio) seeking to annul the amnesty law.

The law supersedes the rule of impunity and has the initial approval in the House of Representatives, however, it is in danger in the Senate because three ruling coalition legislators refuse to support it.

Bordaberry constitutionally ruled Uruguay between 1972 and 1973, then became the dictator from 1973 to 1976. In 2009 he was sentenced to 30 years in prison for violating the Constitution, and an additional 30 for the murder of 14 missing people in his mandate.

Story courtesy of Agencia Pulsar, a news agency run by AMARC-ALC network of community radios.

Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was arrested and forces into exile by his own military this morning, over his controversial proposed vote on constitutional amendment. He woke up to gun fire as soldiers struggled with guards at the presidential residence just one hour before voting was supposed to begin.

He was taken to an airbase near the capital city of Tegucigalpa, and several hours later appeared in Costa Rica saying that troops had “kidnapped” him in his pyjamas.

“If holding a poll provokes a coup, the abduction of the president and expulsion from his country, then what kind of democracy are we living in?” Mr. Zelaya said from Costa Rica.

Some 2000 protestors, some armed with shovels and metal poles gathered outside the presidential residence burning tires, while two fighter jets roared over the city, reports Reuters.

According to the BBC, there were armoured vehicles on the streets and police fired tear gas to disburse crowds of presidential supporters. The BBC website aired footage of armed soldiers patrolling the streets.

The president had intended to hold a non-binding referendum to gauge public support for a term limit extension that would allow him to re-run in the upcoming elections, January 2010. Both the Supreme Court and the congress had ruled the referendum illegal.

On Thursday Mr. Zelaya fired his army chief, General Romeo Vásquez Velásque, for refusing to provide logistical support for the referendum. At the time he said his decision was the result of “a crisis caused by some sectors that have promoted destabilisation and chaos”.

The chiefs of the navy, army and air force, among 36 other members of the armed forces, stepped down in solidarity with Gen. Velásque. His defence minister also resigned.

The Supreme Court ordered Thursday that Gen. Velásque be reinstated, but Mr. Zelaya did not comply.

The coup is the first successful military deposal of a president in Central America since the cold war era.

World Reaction

President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela warned military action. “If our embassy were attacked, for example, if our ambassador were kidnapped or beaten, well that military junta… would be entering a state of war, a de facto state of war,” he said. “I have put the armed forces of Venezuela on alert.”

Though he has made similar threats in the past, President Chávez has never followed through.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged a return to constitutionality, saying the junta’s action “violates the precepts of the Inter-American Democratic Charter and thus should be condemned by all.”

Argentina’s own Cristina Fernández de Kirchner released a statement saying the situation reminded her of the“worst years of Latin America’s history,” adding that the coup constituted “a return to barbarity.”

Today’s events were also condemned by the governments of Bolivia, Spain and Ecuador, as well as the European Union.