Trócaire concerned about Guatemala election

Trócaire has expressed concern about the presidential election in Guatemala at the weekend.

The Irish aid agency said it feared former military dictator Jose Efrain Rios Montt could be returned to power, despite polls predicting that the election would be a race between two other candidates.

Rios Montt is accused of planning the massacre of 200,000 indigenous Mayas in Guatemala during his reign in the 1980s.

Trócaire said the former dictator’s political party assumed power in the Central American nation four years ago and the intervening period has been marked by increased corruption, oppression and drug trafficking.