Guatemala Puts Ex-Soldiers on Trial for Human Rights Abuses

Guatemala Puts Ex-Soldiers on Trial for Human Rights Abuses
Published 14 December 2015 (5 hours 31 minutes ago)

The Guatemalan army was responsible for killing thousands of people in the early 1980s, in an attempt to wipe out local guerrillas.



Guatemala will put two former military officers on trial in February for committing crimes against humanity during the 1980s armed conflict.

Lt. Col. Esteelmer Francisco Reyes Giron and former Military Commissioner Heriberto Valdez Azij were both arrested in June in the northern state of Alta Verapaz for crimes committed in the 1980s when the Guatemalan army instituted “Operation Sophia.”

The violent operation aimed to end guerrilla warfare by destroying the civilian base in which it hid, particularly the Mayan communities who were believed to be hiding the guerrillas. In the first part of the decade, the army destroyed over 600 villages and killed or disappeared some 200,000 civilians.

Valdez Azij was arrested for his involvement in the forced disappearances of seven people in a military operation in 1982, while Reyes Giron is accused of capturing and killing the indigenous family of Dominga Coc and her two daughters Anita Seb and Herlinda Coc between 1982 and 1983.

More:
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Guatemala-Puts-Ex-Soldiers-on-Trial-for-Human-Rights-Abuses--20151214-0027.html