Guatemala's ex-despot Rios Montt has dementia

Guatemala's former dictator Efrain Rios Montt has dementia, doctors said Tuesday at a hearing to decide if he is fit to face retrial for genocide during the country's civil war.

The 89-year-old former general, who ruled the Central American country from 1982 to 1983, is accused of ordering the army to massacre more than 1,700 Ixil Maya indigenous people in northern Guatemala.

He was sentenced to 80 years in prison at an initial trial in 2013, but the Constitutional Court threw out his conviction on procedural grounds and ordered a retrial.

His lawyers say he cannot face a new trial because he is no longer capable of understanding the charges against him.

After examining Rios Montt during a week of court-ordered tests at a private psychiatric facility, experts found he alternates between lucid moments and dementia, including hallucinations, said doctor Walter Rinze of the Federico Mora National Mental Health Hospital.

"The conclusion reached is that the patient suffers from mixed vascular dementia," said Rinze, presenting the first of three reports to the court in Guatemala City.

The other two reports, by the National Institute of Forensic Sciences and San Juan de Diosare National Hospital, reached a similar conclusion.

Rinze said the condition was caused by small blood clots damaging Rios Montt's brain.

Doctors also found the former ruler has impaired vision and hearing, as well as heart and back problems.

Lawyers for both sides questioned doctors on the reports after they were presented.

Prosecutors said they expected a ruling later in the day on whether or not Rios Montt can stand trial.

A medical examiner's report last month found Rios Montt mentally incompetent to stand trial. The court ordered the latest tests after prosecutors challenged that conclusion.

Rios Montt and his ex-military intelligence chief, Jose Rodriguez, are charged with orchestrating a scorched-earth campaign in Ixil Maya areas as the government sought to stamp out rural support for leftist guerrilla groups at the height of Guatemala's 1960-1996 civil war.

Rios Montt is the first former head of state to face genocide charges in a domestic court.