Church backs elderly victims of retired Guatemalan general

[Judi Lynn]

Manuel Benedicto Lucas García, considered 'one of the bloodiest generals in the history of Latin America,' is on trial for genocide



Manuel Benedicto Lucas García, former head of the Guatemalan army. (Photo: California State University Northridge. University Library)

A retired Guatemalan military commander – considered "one of the bloodiest generals in the history of Latin America" by survivors of the repression he oversaw -- has gone on trial for genocide, offering a possible last opportunity for justice for aging victims of targeted attacks on Indigenous villages during the country's armed conflict.

Manuel Benedicto Lucas García, former head of the Guatemalan army for eight months in the early 1980s, is standing trial on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity, forced disappearance and sexual violence. Lucas García's tenure as army chief coincided with the administration of his brother, President Fernando Romeo Lucas García.

Association for Justice and Reconciliation, an organization assisted by the Archdiocese of Guatemala City's human rights office since 2008, alleges the retired general ordered "more than 32 selective and generalized massacres," along with "the destruction of more than 23 entire villages" in the Maya Ixil region of western Guatemala, according to a pre-trial statement.

"From his position as Operational Commander of the Guatemalan Army, he identified the Mayan peoples of the country … as enemies of the State," the statement continued.

The massacres claimed the lives of at least 1,771 people, the organization said, including "children, the elderly, men, women, even pregnant women." Soldiers also burned homes and crops, while carrying out persecutions, forced displacements and bombings, "as well as subjecting the population to conditions of hunger and disease that caused the death of hundreds more people, in addition to serious acts of sexual violence against women and girls," the organization said.

More:
https://www.ucanews.com/news/church-backs-elderly-victims-of-retired-guatemalan-general/104860

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Former Guatemalan General Benedicto Lucas García On Trial For Genocide And Crimes Against Humanity →
April 9, 2024

(Another case of U.S. & western support for and ‘legitimization’ of genocide as foreign policy)

Benedicto Lucas García was trained by the U.S. in irregular warfare and counterinsurgency at the then School of the Americas. While head of the U.S. and western-backed Guatemalan military in 1981-1982, Benedicto Lucas Garcia was in charge of planning and carrying out the scorched earth massacre campaigns against the civilian Maya population.

These atrocities were ‘legitimized’ by the Guatemala regime, U.S and western powers as part of the “war against communism” and in defense of democracy”.


Interviewed in the article is Jesus Tecu Osorio, eye-witness to and survivor of the genocidal Chixoy Dam/Rio Negro massacres committed against the Maya Achi people in Rabinal, Baja Verapaz, during the worst years of the scorched earth massacres.

From 1975-1985, the World Bank and IDB invested hundreds of millions of dollars into the genocidal regimes ruling Guatemala to build the Chixoy hydro-electric dam project. From 1994 forward, Jesus Tecu and Carlos Chen Osorio – another eye-witness, survivor of the Chixoy Dam massacres, spearheaded the Chixoy Dam Reparations Campaign to tell the truth about this genocidal “development” project and achieve a measure of justice and reparations.

To date, there has been no proper investigation into the role and responsibilities of the World Bank and IDB for the genocidal massacres and forced destruction of dozens of Maya villages so as to complete of the Chixoy Dam project.

https://rightsaction.org/emails/former-guatemalan-general-benedicto-lucas-garca-on-trial-for-genocide-and-crimes-against-humanity

[Judi Lynn]

1. Genocide in Guatemala

Guatemala is a mainly mountainous country in Central America. It was once at the heart of the remarkable Mayan civilization, which flourished until the 10th century AD. When Spanish explorers conquered this region in the 16th century, the Mayans became slaves in their own homeland. They are still the underprivileged majority of Guatemala’s population.

Civil war existed in Guatemala since the early 1960s due to inequalities existing in the economic and political life. In the 1970s, the Maya began participating in protests against the repressive government, demanding greater equality and inclusion of the Mayan language and culture. In 1980, the Guatemalan army instituted “Operation Sophia,” which aimed at ending insurgent guerrilla warfare by destroying the civilian base in which they hid. This program specifically targeted the Mayan population, who were believed to be supporting the guerilla movement.

Over the next three years, the army destroyed 626 villages, killed or “disappeared” more than 200,000 people and displaced an additional 1.5 million, while more than 150,000 were driven to seek refuge in Mexico. Forced disappearance policies included secretly arresting or abducting people, who were often killed and buried in unmarked graves. In addition, the government instituted a scorched earth policy, destroying and burning buildings and crops, slaughtering livestock, fouling water supplies and violating sacred places and cultural symbols. Many of these actions were undertaken by the army, specifically through special units known as the Kaibiles, in addition to private death squads, who often acted on the advice of the army. The U.S. government often supported the repressive regimes as a part of its anti-Communist policies during the Cold War. The violence faced by the Mayan people peaked between 1978 and 1986. Catholic priests and nuns also often faced violence as they supported the rights of the Mayan people.

After 36 years, the Guatemalan armed conflict ended in 1996 when the government signed a peace accord (The Accord for a Firm and Lasting Peace) with the insurgent group, the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG). Part of the accords directed the United Nations to organize a Commission of Historical Clarification (CEH). It began work in July 1997, funded by a number of countries, including the United States. In February 1999, it released its report, “Guatemala: Memory of Silence,” which stated that a governmental policy of genocide was carried out against the Mayan Indians. The CEH concluded the army committed genocide against four specific groups: the Ixil Mayas; the Q’anjob’al and Chuj Mayas; the K’iche’ Mayas of Joyabaj, Zacualpa and Chiché; and the Achi Mayas.

In November 1998, three former members of a “civil patrol” were convicted in the first case arising from the genocide. In September 2009, the courts sentenced Military Commissioner Felipe Cusanero to 150 years in prison for the crime of enforced disappearance of six members of the Choatulum indigenous community. In June 2011, General Héctor Mario López Fuentes was caught and charged with genocide and crimes against humanity. In August 2011, four soldiers were sentenced to 30 years for each murder plus 30 years for crimes against humanity, totaling 6,060 years each for the massacre in a village of Dos Erres in Guatemala’s northern Petén region.

https://hmh.org/library/research/genocide-in-guatemala-guide/

[Judi Lynn]

2. Survivors of Guatemala genocide recount horrors at trial

21 DAYS AGO

Lucas Garcia is charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and forced disappearance, which carry a possible sentence of more than 100 years in prison.



REUTERS
Survivors of the internal armed conflict attend a hearing at the Supreme Court of Justice, in Guatemala City. Photo: Reuters

Indigenous survivors of Guatemala's civil war recounted the horrors of massacres allegedly committed by the military at the genocide trial of an elderly retired general on Monday.

Juan Brito said his wife and four young daughters were shot dead and their bodies burned in a remote Mayan village in January 1982.

"Only a few bones and ashes remained," he told the judges on the second day of the trial of Benedicto Lucas Garcia, 91.

"The soldiers killed quite a few children... and pregnant women," added the 70-year-old, speaking the Mayan language and assisted by an interpreter.

Catarina Chel, 87, said that her two teenage children were murdered by soldiers when they were harvesting corn.

More:
https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/survivors-of-guatemala-genocide-recount-horrors-at-trial-17710716



Picture drawn by massacre survivor in Guatemala



Guatemalan villagers carrying remains of loved ones from a mass grave to be re-interred in private graves.