Guatemala City, February 27 (RHC)-- In Guatemala, lawmakers are considering an amnesty bill that could free over 30 people convicted of crimes against humanity, including genocide, torture and enforced disappearances, during the country’s 36-year U.S.-backed slaughter, which ended in 1996.

In 2008, Guatemala began prosecuting such cases after years of impunity. In an historic 2013 ruling, Guatemala’s former U.S.-backed dictator, Efraín Ríos Montt, was convicted of genocide. His case was being retried when he died last year.

Amnesty International warned of the danger of passing the proposed bill, saying that the law “represents a serious threat to the rights of thousands of victims of the country’s internal armed conflict to learn the truth and to obtain justice for the atrocities that they and their families suffered.”