Video interview with Ruben Zamora, part 2

English transcript part 2 - 2 min 27 sec

(Conducted July 25th 2003)

I am not a lawyer, I am not a man of the law, but even so I think it is very easy to interpret, to determine and conclude that the participation of Ríos Montt in the elections is illegal. When the Constitution was written, it was left very clear that anybody who had accomplished a coup d’etat, whether civilian or military, would be barred from running for the presidency.  Supposedly, since the Constitution was written, we would have begun a democratic process that could not be undermined by a future coup d’etat. It is one of the only articles of the Constitution that may be applied retroactively, it was included specifically to bar people like Ríos Montt from acceding to power.

Personally, from a democratic spirit or point of view, I believe it is inappropriate that he should be allowed to run. In Guatemala, you would be surprised, there are about 76.000 laws, but many of these laws are senseless, they are laws without correct projection, laws that establish economic, political, juridical, and religious privileges, but even so, they are laws, and if we don’t like them, we would have to change them through legal means. The fact that we may not like a law must not imply that we just try to twist it and make it work as we see fit. This law is categorical, and quite simply, Ríos Montt or anyone else who may have committed a coup d’etat in the past must not be allowed to participate in the elections.    

In fact, on three or four previous occasions, the Constitutional Court which in the beginning had prominent lawyers outside the reach of party politics consistently ruled against the candidacy of Ríos Montt. This time it is different because of the seven judges in the Court, four of them have links to his political party, to his government, to him. They have held government positions, they have been his personal lawyers, and they certainly got to the Constitutional Court to defend his case.

Translation by Lone Hvass August 2003