Lawyer for former Guatemalan dictator shot dead in capital

One of Guatemalan former dictator Efrain Rios Montt’s defense lawyers was gunned down in the country’s capital on Wednesday, authorities said, the latest twist to a tumultuous genocide trial. Francisco Palomo, a leading member of Rios Montt’s defense team, was shot dead by two men on a motorbike while driving his car in Guatemala City, according to a preliminary police report. Rios Montt’s opponents accuse him of a scorched earth policy in the bloodiest phase of the country’s 36-year civil war. In May 2013, he was found guilty of overseeing the killings by the armed forces of at least 1,771 members of the Maya Ixil population during his 1982-83 rule.

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