EFRAIN RIOS MONTT, THE BORN-AGAIN GUA-
temalan general whose 1982 coup turned him into
Latin America’s first evangelical head-of-state, is still a
darling of the Christian Right, even though he established
one of the worst human rights records in recent history.
Following his ouster by coup in 1983, the usually
centrist evangelical magazine Christianity Today argued
that Rios Montt had been undeservedly libeled in the
press, and the National Religious Broadcasters Associa-
tion organized a speaking tour for the former dictator. “I
think you can be a genuine missionary to the United States
by coming and giving your testimony,” NRB executive
director Ben Armstrong told the General, who in 1984
appeared on the Christian Broadcasting Network, Trinity
Broadcasting Network, and on Jimmy Swaggart’s pro-
gram.
In recent years Rios Montt and missionary Ronny
Gilmore, of the California-based Verbo community, or-
ganized “Operation Whole Armor.” Armed with Bibles
supplied by Bible Literature International of Ohio, they
toured Guatemalan military bases to put a copy of the
New Testament in the hands of 70,000 military, civil
patrol, and police officers.
“Operation Whole Armor” offers soldiers more than
Bibles. “I’ve talked to soldiers who participated in this
[war],” says Ronny Gilmore in a tape distributed to U.S.
supporters last fall. “And they’ve shared with me the
anguish in their hearts for these crimes that they commit-
ted, and said many times it was in defense and many times
that they were battling the Marxists. But many times they
did not know whether they were killing these Marxist
guerrillas or not. One soldier in particular was an evan-
gelical and he said that he didn’t know if God could
Gen. Rios Montt on Pat Robertson’s “700 Club”
forgive him because he had taken children and their moth-
ers and put them into a house and then set them on fire,
under orders from the captain.”
After a dramatic pause, he continues. “I shared with
him God’s love for him and [told him] that he could be
forgiven.”
According to Bible Literature International, Rios
Montt is currently “smuggling” Bibles into Nicaragua,
where Bibles are sold freely throughout the country.
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