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6,060 year sentence imposed for 1982 Guatemala massacre

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  • 6,060 year sentence imposed for 1982 Guatemala massacre

    Folks, this is about taking responsibility and facing one's painful past. Not blame the US government or anybody for this-and-that. (w.r.t to other WAB threads)



    6,060 year sentence imposed for 1982 Guatemala massacre

    6,060 year sentence: The sentences for Manuel Pop Sun, Reyes Collin Gualip and Daniel Martinez include thirty years for each death, plus thirty years for crimes against humanity. The three men are former members the Guatemalan military's elite Kaibil unit.

    Photographers take pictures of Reyes Collin Gualip after his sentence was read at the Supreme Court in Guatemala City on Aug. 2. Guatemala on Tuesday sentenced four soldiers, including Gualip, who belonged to an elite unit known as the Kaibiles, to 6,060 years of prison each, in the first conviction for a massacre during the country's brutal 36-year civil war.

    Jorge Dan Lopez/Reuters
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    By Sonia Perez, Associated Press / August 4, 2011
    GUATEMALA CITY

    A Guatemalan court on Tuesday sentenced three former special forces soldiers to 6,060 years in prison each for the 1982 massacre of 201 men, women and children during the Central American country's civil war.
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    The court also sentenced a former army second lieutenant to 6,066 years in prison for the same massacre in the village of Dos Erres in Guatemala's northern Peten region.

    The length of the sentences is largely symbolic since under Guatemalan law the maximum time a convict can serve is 50 years.



    The sentences for Manuel Pop Sun, Reyes Collin Gualip and Daniel Martinez include thirty years for each death, plus thirty years for crimes against humanity. The three men are former members the Guatemalan military's elite Kaibil unit.

    Former Second Lt. Carlos Antonio Carias received an extra six years for stealing the victims' belonging, the court said in a statement. Prosecutors say Carias was in charge of a military base near the community of Dos Erres and provided information to the army that led to the massacre.

    Outside the court, survivors of the massacre cried when the sentences were announced and held red roses. They spelled the word "justice" on the ground with red petals.

    "We waited many years for justice," said survivor Raul de Jesus Gomez. "I saw when they were killing people. They had us kneeling for five hours and would put their rifles in our mouths every time we asked them to stop killing the others."

    A group of the relatives of the accused soldiers shouted that the court was biased.

    Carias called the sentence "unjust" and said "I would risk my life again for that honorable institution that is the Army."

    Court filings say 17 Kaibiles attacked the community of Dos Erres before dawn on December 7, 1982, looking for missing weapons that guerrilla groups operating in the region had stolen from the soldiers days earlier. They accused the farmers of collaborating with the rebels.

    While more than 40 soldiers guarded the perimeter of the community, the men raped and killed women and girls, and banished hundreds of people from the community, according to the filings.

    Dozens of bodies were exhumed from a well in the community in the 1990s and the remains from 171 victims were recovered in all. At least 67 children under the age of 12 were among the dead.

    Witnesses say villagers were tortured and robbed by the soldiers as part of a "scorched earth" effort to eliminate communities supporting insurgent groups at the height of Guatemala's 36-year civil war.

    This is Guatemala's second massacre trial related to its 1960-1996 civil war, when more than 200,000 people, mostly Mayan Indians, were killed or went missing and entire villages were exterminated, according to the United Nations.

    The first trial ended in a 2004 verdict against an officer and 13 soldiers, but the verdict was overturned on appeal.

    This trial had been delayed since 2000 through dozens of court injunctions.

    Another three Kaibiles from the same unit were detained in the United States, one has already been deported to Guatemala. A fourth one was detained in Canada. Guatemala has requested their extradition.
    “the misery of being exploited by capitalists is nothing compared to the misery of not being exploited at all” -- Joan Robinson

  • #2
    Xinhui,

    Have there been any prosecutions of higher officials for actions that took place during the Civil War. it is obvioulsy important to imprison people who committed evil acts, but has there been much success in meting out justice to people who ordered them? (I don't mean this massacre specifically, but other things that went on).
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    • #3
      There is no Hell hot enough for these four men.

      6,060 years illustrates the impotence of Guatamala's sentencing laws, but after the deaths of so many innocent people at the hands of government, one can understand Guatamala's aversion to the death penalty. Still, there must be many there who would like to see these men executed.

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      • #4
        Originally posted by Bigfella View Post
        Xinhui,

        Have there been any prosecutions of higher officials for actions that took place during the Civil War. it is obvioulsy important to imprison people who committed evil acts, but has there been much success in meting out justice to people who ordered them? (I don't mean this massacre specifically, but other things that went on).
        No. That said, all the folks with links to the war are out of the office. They are unelectable
        “the misery of being exploited by capitalists is nothing compared to the misery of not being exploited at all” -- Joan Robinson

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        • #5
          Originally posted by xinhui View Post
          No. That said, all the folks with links to the war are out of the office. They are unelectable
          Pity. A stint in a small dark hole is what they deserve. Is Rio Montt still sitting in the senate or has he retired now?
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          Win nervously lose tragically - Reds C C

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          • #6
            Originally posted by Red Seven View Post
            There is no Hell hot enough for these four men.

            6,060 years illustrates the impotence of Guatamala's sentencing laws, but after the deaths of so many innocent people at the hands of government, one can understand Guatamala's aversion to the death penalty. Still, there must be many there who would like to see these men executed.
            I bet they wished they had been tried in Germany. The Supreme Court would have ensured they get a parole date, molly coddled their dignity and probably given them a few thousand € if their feelings got hurt. ;)

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            • #7
              Originally posted by Bigfella View Post
              Pity. A stint in a small dark hole is what they deserve. Is Rio Montt still sitting in the senate or has he retired now?
              You are right. he is still in the senate. Was thinking about his 2003 run.
              “the misery of being exploited by capitalists is nothing compared to the misery of not being exploited at all” -- Joan Robinson

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