Retired General Manuel Benedicto Lucas García, former Chief of the General Staff of the Guatemalan Army, will face an oral and public debate on March 25 for his alleged responsibility in the massacre of at least 1,771 indigenous people during the internal armed conflict (1960-1996). ).
The Human Rights Office of the Archbishopric of Guatemala (ODHAG) reported this Thursday, March 21, that the start date of the trial was notified to them by the High Risk Court “A”.
The ODHAG, which acts as the plaintiff in the case, also detailed that Manuel Benedicto Lucas García will be tried for the crimes of genocide, duties once morest humanity, forced disappearance and sexual violence.
The former high military chief is the brother of the deceased former president Fernando Romeo Lucas García (1978-1982).
Lawyer Nery Rodenas, director of ODHAG, recalled at a press conference that the victims of the massacre between 1982 and 1983 are indigenous Mayan Ixils, whom the Guatemalan Army considered “enemies of the State” during the internal war.
Rodenas specified that the oral and public debate will last until June, with the participation of more than 150 witnesses, including 30 survivors of sexual violence.
Likewise, 80 forensic anthropology experts will be part of the trial with 170 pieces of evidence related to the case and more than 60 military documents, some of them declassified by the United States, according to the same source.
“There are more than 20 thousand pages that will be presented at the trial to prove the soldier’s guilt,” added the lawyer.
“The victims have had to wait almost 40 years to obtain justice,” said Rodenas, while pointing out that the complaint of the massacre of the 1,771 Ixils carried out in Quiché was presented in 2001.
According to the activist, “achieving justice following 40 years is sad, but we hope that it finally arrives in this case, because what we seek is to know the facts and not stigmatize the victims.”
For his part, Eleodoro Osorio, from the Justice and Reconciliation Association (AJR), which represents the victims, called on the international community to send experts and jurists to closely follow the trial in court and the presentation of testimonial evidence and documents.
“We ask the court for justice so that the events are not repeated,” Osorio pointed out, recalling that 40 witnesses to the massacres have already died.
The late dictator José Efraín Ríos Montt, who ruled de facto between 1982-1983, was captured, tried and sentenced in 2013 to 80 years in prison for the massacre of the 1,771 members of the Mayan Ixil ethnic group, that is, for the same case. .
However, due to errors in the process, the Constitutional Court, Guatemala’s highest court, annulled the sentence and ordered a new trial.
The retired general died in 2018 at the age of 91 while the trial once morest him for the massacres of the Ixil indigenous people during his de facto regime was being repeated.
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