Ríos Montt retired from the army and returned to Guatemala in 1977. A spiritual crisis caused him to leave the Roman Catholic Church in 1978 and to join the Iglesia El Verbo ("Church of the Word"), an evangelical Protestant church affiliated with the Gospel Outreach Church based in Eureka, California.Efrain Rios Montt, former Guatemalan military dictator charged with genocide, dies at 91, The Washington Post, John Otis, April 1, 2018. Retrieved April 2, 2018., National Security Archive, The George Washington University, Accessed 29 March 2013 Ríos Montt became very active in his new church and taught religion in a school affiliated with it. At the time, his younger brother Mario Enrique was the Catholic prelate of Escuintla.
