From 1982-1983, President Efrain Ríos Montt executed one of the most brutal, scorched earth campaigns in modern Latin American history. Cultivating support not only among Guatemalan elites, but from transnational Evangelical networks and the Reagan administration, the dictator’s tenure is widely regarded as the most dangerous time in the protracted 35-year civil war. While a plethora of historians have studied the extent of the violence during Ríos Montt’s reign – the pressing question in the historiography is how Ríos Montt’s professed Pentecostal piety played a role in his administration. Among the myriad academics who have examined this question, David Stoll, Lauren Turek, and Patricia Harms illuminate the relationship between Ríos Montt’s …show more content…
In 1983, as the New York Times and the Washington Post reported the widespread massacres committed by the Ríos Montt regime, the President saw a need to defend his administration. Drawing on transcripts from Ríos Montt’s weekly sermons, Stoll showcases how Pentecostalism was used to obfuscate the intentionality behind the army’s actions. Preaching to the nation in 1983, Ríos Montt refused to indict the military, and instead, issued a series of denials. Punctuating his sermon with a vague plea for biblical forgiveness, he confessed that the government had “sinned,” the implication being that any unjust violence committed was an unintended mistake and that God would give mercy. Furthermore, when the evangelical press Charisma asked Ríos Montt about the reports in American print, he deployed Pentecostal rhetoric to explain the widely reported massacres. Evoking apocalyptic language, Ríos Montt stated that the mass casualties were not a result of his leadership, rather, they were a “sign of the last days.” In the eyes of the President, the massive body count was the result of mounting “disbelief in the Lord,” not merely within Guatemala, but transnationally. According to Stoll, these “pathetic” excuses served to maintain support among Ríos Montt’s Evangelical base in the final months of his presidency. By utilizing a variety of press reports from the time, Stoll successfully illuminates how the regime deployed Pentecostal rhetoric, not merely to justify massacres, but as a political