GUATEMALA CITY (AP) -- Guatemala's ruling party on Saturday re-elected
                  former dictator Efrain Rios Montt -- who is under investigation on genocide
                  charges -- to a third term as the party's executive director.

                  During its biannual convention in the capital, the Guatemalan Republican Front
                  also gave its backing to populist President Alfonso Portillo and Vice President
                  Juan Francisco Reyes, both as adjunct secretaries general.

                  Rios Montt, the current leader of Guatemala's Congress, founded what has
                  become the country's most powerful political party after a short stint as dictator
                  in 1983. The Guatemalan Republican Front now enjoys a majority in the
                  legislature.

                  In March, Spain's National Court opened an investigation into Rios Montt and
                  seven others based on a complaint by Guatemalan Nobel laureate Rigoberta
                  Menchu, who accused them of genocide in connection with an army assault on
                  the Spanish Embassy occupied by Mayan Indians. Menchu's father and several
                  Spanish nationals were among the 37 who died.

                  Copyright 2000 The Associated Press.