The former guerrilla of the Rebel Armed Forces (FAR) of Guatemala César Montes, after his arrest in 2020.Esteban Biba (EFE)
The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has reported on Monday that he is "looking at the possibility" that the Government of Guatemala pardons the former Guatemalan guerrilla César Montes and that his transfer to Mexico is allowed. Montes was captured by Interpol in October 2020 in Mexican territory and extradited to the Central American country, where he was sentenced to 175 years in prison for the murder of three soldiers in an indigenous community in 2019. "He is a person, a leader who is accused of some crimes, he is in prison, he is already an older person and if they are looking with Guatemala to see the possibility of being pardoned and coming to Mexico, that he is given asylum in our country, we are already seeing it," said the president.
López Obrador has informed of the request for pardon during his morning press conference in Mexico City, although he has not given more details about the process or the response of the Government of Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei, who in 2020 spoke in favor of the conviction against Montes. "I welcome the fact that César Montes has been sentenced to 175 years in prison after being defeated in trial for the murder of three soldiers in the line of duty. Today justice is done in his memory," said the president of Guatemala.
The events attributed to Montes, whose real name is Julio César Macías López, occurred on September 3, 2019 in a municipality in the Caribbean of Guatemala, El Estor, where a group of nine soldiers were searching for clandestine airstrips, given that the area is considered an important step for the transfer of drugs by organized crime groups. According to the official account made public by the Prosecutor's Office, the patrol was stopped and attacked by residents of the area under orders from Montes, so the former guerrilla became the most wanted man in the country by the Guatemalan authorities.
Montes had fled to Mexico and was captured by Interpol in the state of Guerrero on October 10, 2020 and extradited to Guatemala, where he was subjected to the trial that ended in his 175-year sentence. Authorities convicted him of murder, attempted murder and unlawful association of armed persons. Eight other people were also convicted in the process. The former guerrilla pleaded his innocence during the trial and claimed that he did not give the order to attack the military. "Really, I expected the Attorney General's Office to have something more consistent. I didn't kill anyone, I didn't give orders to kill anyone, I wasn't in a position to do so. The orders I gave was to return the rifles and support the police to get the wounded out," Montes said during the trial.
Julio César Macías López called himself Comandante César Montes during the civil war that bled Guatemala. He was the leader of the Rebel Armed Forces, one of the guerrillas that fought the Guatemalan Army during the armed conflict that left more than 200,000 dead in the Central American country. Human rights organizations have denounced that during the conflict the human rights of indigenous communities were violated and that genocide was committed against these populations. One of the main ones pointed out was the dictator Efraín Ríos Montt, who after evading justice for decades was subjected to an oral and public trial in 2013. More than 100 survivors and relatives of the victims gave their testimonies, an account of the horrors committed by the army. The dictator was sentenced to 80 years in prison, 50 for genocide and 30 years for crimes against humanity. It is estimated that more than 10,000 people were killed during his presidency.
Montes has spent most of his life involved in the guerrilla struggle in Guatemala. He has left testimony of that past in his books Beyond the bars and The guerrilla was my way. The former guerrilla commander also became involved with El Salvador's Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), and participated in the Sandinistas' war against the contras, the right-wing guerrillas financed by Washington to overthrow Nicaragua's revolutionary government. With the signing of the peace accords and the end of the armed conflict, Montes left the underground and settled in the regions near El Estor, in the Caribbean of Guatemala, where he is accused of exercising quasi-military control. During the trial for the murder of the three soldiers, Montes said: "If I had been there, none of the nine soldiers would come out alive. I would have eaten them fried, fasting. It wasn't me, I had nothing to do with it."
A villain to Guatemalan authorities, Montes is considered a hero for his fight against the bloodthirsty Guatemalan Army. In September 2022, the Fondo de Cultura Económica made a presentation in Mexico of Más allá de las rejas, in which the director of that institution, Paco Ignacio Taibo II, participated, who called for the release of the former guerrilla. "We are not neutral," Taibo said. "Release Cesar Montes now," he said.
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