guardian.co.uk
Added: Jan 27, 2012
Ex-Guatemalan dictator Ríos Montt faces genocide charges as presidents in El Salvador and Colombia apologise for massacres
Latin America is confronting past civil wars and dictatorships this week with a series of prosecutions and apologies that are shining a light on decades-old atrocities.
Governments and courts in Guatemala, Argentina, Colombia and El Salvador moved to acknowledge and possibly punish state-sanctioned violence during cold war-era campaigns against leftwing insurgents.
Human rights campaigners welcomed the initiatives but warned that the violence of the drug war in central America overshadowed the prospect of overdue justice and accountability.