Press Release: October 17, 2003

The United Native Nations (UNN), an international organization of native communities, tribes and nations in the Americas, denounces and strongly condemns the unjustified and vicious assault perpetrated against Nobel Peace Prize Winner and human rights advocate Rigoberta Menchú Túm in Guatemala.

The brutal attack was carried out by members of the dictator General Efraín Ríos Mont political party inside the Constitutional Court of Guatemala in front of its judges and guards who did nothing to prevent or stop the aggression against the Nobel laureate.

Rigoberta Menchú Túm had filed a legal recourse at the Constitutional Court of her country in order to prevent Ríos Mont from running as a presidential candidate in this upcoming election.

General Ríos Mont carried out a military coup in Guatemala in which hundreds of people were killed. He is being held responsible for the murder of thousands of his opponents and for the genocide of thousands upon thousands of our mayan brothers and sisters in Guatemala.

The United Native Nations make an urgent call to the international community to intervene in this situation to protect the lives and physical integrity of Rigoberta Menchú Túm and the Guatemalan indigenous people and to guarantee a clean and fair electoral process to prevent the return of a genocidal criminal to the presidency of this sister country.

We formally request the International Court of Justice to apprehend and bring to trial the criminal General Efraín Ríos Mont for crimes against humanity and genocide.