Rights Court Condemns Guatemala in 1982
Massacre
By Nathalia Rojas
(AP) The Inter-American Court of Human
Rights condemned Guatemala for failing to
seek justice in the 1982 massacre of more
than 200 villagers during the country's
civil war, according to a ruling released
Monday in San José.
The court, the legal arm of the Organization
of American States, ruled Guatemala's
government failed to adequately investigate
the Dos Erres massacre, punish the soldiers
responsible or fully identify the victims.
In the ruling, dated Nov. 24 and released
Monday, the Costa Rica-based court ordered
the Guatemalan government to pay $3.2
million in reparations to the survivors and
relatives of the dead within a year.
It further ordered Guatemalan authorities to
conduct a serious investigation, not only to
find the soldiers who carried out the
massacre but also to identify the
high-ranking officials who ordered it.
Ruth del Valle, a special advisor to
Guatemala's president for human rights, told
The Associated Press that the government
would comply. However, del Valle said the
government currently could not afford to pay
the required reparations and would probably
miss the court deadline.
She also said the government had already
paid the relatives of the victims more than
$1 million in 2001 as part of a national
reconciliation program.
Over three days in December 1982, a military
squad specializing in counterinsurgency
killed at least 251 people in the village of
Dos Erres in Guatemala's northern Peten
region. Dozens were children under 12.
The military accused the villagers of being
guerrilla sympathizers after they refused to
join paramilitary groups to fight the
rebels, according to a report by the
U.N.-led truth commission established after
the war.
The massacre was one of hundreds that
occurred during Guatemala's 36-year civil
war, which ended in 1996. Some 240,000
people, mostly Mayan Indians, vanished or
died.
The Center for Justice and International
Law, a Washington-based group that has
helped pursue the Dos Erres case, applauded
the ruling and called on Guatemala to comply
"so the victims and their families find
justice after 28 years of waiting."
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