In Guatemala today, the trial of the former general and dictator, José Efraín Rios Montt, is scheduled to begin again after nearly six months of delay. Rios Montt is being retried on charges that he directed a campaign of genocide and crimes against humanity against Guatemala’s Maya Ixels in the early 1980s, after he took power in a coup in 1982. Specifically, Rios Montt has been accused of overseeing the murders of nearly 1,800 indigenous peoples in Guatemala’s northern highlands. The details are hideous, even by the standards of twentieth century attrocities. 

Remember Nicaragua’s plans for a grand canal? 

Not long after extremists stormed the Malheur Wildlife Refuge did local news begin to cover a baffling, if not anxious scene. The anti-government “militia” was no stranger to the Burns, Oregon community, with ongoing interactions with federal officials to protest the incarceration of two ranchers, but Saturday marked a turning point in the dialogue: what was billed as a peaceful protest became an armed takeover of a federal building.