Efrain Rios Montt is sentenced to 80 years for genocide and duties against humanity

Guatemala, May 10, 2013. - The former de facto president, former Gen. Jose Efrain Rios Montt, was sentenced to 50 years in prison for 30 years for genocide and duties against humanity.

The former intelligence chief, José Rodríguez  Sánchez was acquitted of the charges against him.

The historic trial that began months ago and shaped by constant judicial ended this afternoon.

The prosecution accused Rios Montt and his intelligence chief, Jose Rodriguez, of having ordered and directed several war plans, executed by the army of Guatemala, to locate and exterminate the indigenous Ixil ethnic group.

Prosecutors accused Rios Montt of having knowledge of the massacres of indigenous people when it ruled Guatemala from March 1982 to August 1983, when there were the bloodiest clashes of the Guatemalan civil war that lasted 36 years.

Just yesterday, Rios Montt has pleaded not guilty to charges of genocide and war crimes, and said he never ordered massacres of indigenous Ixil in Quiché, Guatemala, during 1982 and 1983.

"I never authorized, never signed, never proposed, never ordered it from infringing upon a particular race, ethnicity or religion. Never have. And all you have said there has been no evidence proves that my participation, "said Gen. 86.

The Prosecutor of Guatemala asked for an order to Rios Montt to 75 years in prison, and his intelligence chief, Jose Rodriguez, the slaughter of 771 thousand indigenous Ixil.

Rios Montt, 86 and who ruled de facto Guatemala between March 1982 and August 1983, is accused of ordering the massacre that the military conducted about 700 thousand indigenous Ixil.