This Wednesday, February 28, a Guatemalan court acquitted an Army colonel for the death of six people in the eviction of a blocked route in 2012, but convicted seven other soldiers of minor crimes, in a ruling received with signs of sadness for relatives of the victims.
Colonel Juan Chiroy and a soldier were acquitted of the charge of “extrajudicial execution”, while a sergeant and six other soldiers were sentenced to seven years and 10 months in prison for “injury in a fight” or “firearm shooting”, according to the ruling of the court chaired by Judge María Eugenia Castellanos.
The events occurred during the evacuation of a blocked route on October 4, 2012, in a case known as the “Alaska Summit Massacre”, which indigenous leaders describe as the first massacre carried out by security forces following the end of the civil war (1960-1996).
“There was a lack of comprehensive analysis of the case and also an erroneous interpretation of the crime of extrajudicial execution. As co-plaintiffs we emphasized that this crime has several assumptions, one of them occurs when there is arbitrariness in the activity of the security forces or excess in the use of force,” the lawyer for the victims’ families, Lucía Xiloj, told AFP.
“We are analyzing with the victims [si apelamos]Surely yes, but it is a decision that they are going to make,” he added.
Dozens of relatives of the victims and other people attended the reading of the ruling and left the court with signs of sadness, an AFP journalist observed. Relatives of the accused also attended, including the colonel’s wife, who hugged and kissed her husband following the ruling.
Six men of the Mayan K’iche’ ethnic group died in this event that occurred under the government of the then right-wing president Otto Pérez (2012-2015), sentenced in 2022 to 16 years in prison for corruption. More than 30 people were also injured, but the soldiers were only tried for injuries to 14 people.
The event occurred at the site known as the Alaska Summit due to the altitude and cold climate on that stretch of the route between the departments of Totonicapán and Sololá.
“My request is that they absolve me […]because what I saw in this hearing is that they cannot prove that I committed a crime,” soldier Abraham Gua, who was finally convicted of “shooting a firearm,” told the court.
The nine soldiers remained under house arrest and were prohibited from leaving the country, but Colonel Chiroy and soldier Manuel Lima were released following the ruling.
Before the hearing, regarding 50 indigenous people held a brief Mayan ceremony, with flowers and lit candles, outside the courts.
“They shed a lot of blood”
The trial began on June 15 in a court of high-impact cases in the capital, following almost 11 years of waiting due to resources that delayed the process.
The nine soldiers faced charges of “extrajudicial execution” and “attempted extrajudicial execution” (for the wounded) and risked sentences of between 20 and 50 years in prison.
“Everything that has happened cannot be erased from my heart […]”Because they came to massacre my husband, they shed a lot of blood,” said María Yax, 45, dressed in her colorful regional costume, who hoped that the nine soldiers would be sentenced.
Yax’s husband, José Puac, was a 33-year-old shoemaker who, along with thousands of locals, was protesting the increase in the electricity rate and other demands.
The other five deceased are Jesús Puac, Félix Sapón, Santos Hernández, Rafael Batz and Jesús Caxaj.
More than 90 witnesses testified at the trial, most of them locals, some 300 documents were presented and there were almost 30 forensic reports.
“Divine justice”
“My life changed, I might no longer continue my business, my work [de confección de textiles]. They have to repair this damage they did to us,” said Enrique García, 52, who now travels in a wheelchair following losing his right leg due to a gunshot wound, before the court handed down the sentence.
“If justice is not done, there is divine justice and they have to pay,” García added, stating that “before God they have blood on their hands because they killed our companions.”
They reject sentence
The contrast in reactions to those resolved by the Court was evident among relatives of the victims and the aggrieved, who with gestures showed their discontent following hearing the operative part of the trial.
In a press conference at the conclusion of the hearing, Edin Rafael Tzul, president of the 48 Cantons of Totonicapán, indicated that they reject the court’s decision. “We deeply reject the bias on the part of the judges and the way in which it really… is a form of racism in how they determined the sentence,” he said.
“They focused more on the truncated goals of the soldiers who murdered our brothers and at no time did they give value to the goals and dreams of the family members, the children, the wounded and the deceased,” Tzul concluded. The 48 Cantons of Totonicapán were joint plaintiffs in the case.
In the operative part of the hearing, it was also announced that the dignified reparation hearing is scheduled for March 5 and March 25 will be when the full sentence of the case will be read.
The defense of the victims indicated that they will analyze appealing the sentence in the case, a situation that they will still have to decide.
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