A court sentenced to 12,060 years in prison four former members of the army accused of the massacre of 201 peasants, between December 6 and 8, 1982, during the Guatemalan Civil War (1960-1996), announced a judicial source.
This is the first time that former soldiers were convicted for committing a massacre in the country.
Guilty of the massacre, the defendants, members of an elite army unit, each received 30 years in prison for each peasant killed, for a total of 6,030 years of incarceration.
To this sentence it has been added another 6,030 years in prison for each of the defendants found guilty of “crimes against humanity and prejudice to national security”.
Judges appreciated, moreover, that the culprits showed “perversion” by “shaving off the map” the village of Dos Erres in Peten department, about 470 miles north of the capital.
In the approximately 36 years of confrontation in Guatemala, between the pro-revolutionary rural guerrilla (IAR, the May 13 Movement) and the power supported by military, far-right militias, and army (New Anti-Communist Organization White Hand) there were over 100,000 people killed, another 40,000 were missing and 100,000 people went into exile.