PBI-Guatemala accompanies Famdegua at hearing on Inter-American Court ruling and acquittal of three soldiers in Dos Erres massacre

Update
On May 4, PBI-Guatemala posted:
“#PBI accompanies relatives of Famdegua Guatemala and the Human Rights Law Firm [BDH] to the hearing on the appeal of the #CasoDosErres.
Last November, three Kaibiles accused of crimes against the duties of humanity and murder in the 1982 massacre were acquitted. The hearing was adjourned without prior notice.
In a few days the decision will be notified in writing to the plaintiffs, which must comply with the judgement of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.”
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On April 18, PBI-Guatemala posted:
“Yesterday #PBI accompanied Famdegua [the Association of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared of Guatemala] to the public hearing for the special appeal filed by the plaintiffs of #CasoDosErres
In November last year the High Risk Court acquitted three defendants of the crimes of duty against humanity and murders of more than 200 people in the massacre perpetrated by Kaibiles military commandoes in 1982.
In the coming days a chamber will have to analyze the sentence/judgement in the case on the basis on the resolution of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the grounds of appeal presented by the plaintiffs.
The resolution hearing is scheduled for April 30 at 3pm.”
The Massacre
The BBC has reported:
“More than 200 people were killed in the village of Dos Erres in 1982, one of the most violent episodes in Guatemala’s brutal 36-year conflict.
The Kaibiles [were] a US-trained counter-insurgency force fighting left-wing guerrillas. …The special unit of the Guatemalan army stormed the village in the north of the country on 6 December 1982.
The Kaibiles suspected the villagers of sympathizing with left-wing guerrillas who had two months earlier carried out an ambush on a nearby army patrol, leaving 21 soldiers dead. Even though the soldiers’ search of the village did not uncover any of the weapons the guerrillas had seized during the ambush, the Kaibiles proceeded to kill the village’s inhabitants.
Over several days, the soldiers systematically shot or bludgeoned to death hundreds of men, women and children. They disposed of most of the bodies by throwing them down a well.”
Israel’s role in the Dos Erres massacre
Mark Lewis Taylor, a Maxwell Upson Professor of Theology and Culture at Princeton Theological Seminary, has written in CounterPunch:
“Investigative journalist George Black, writing for NACLA [in 2007], reported that Israel eagerly stepped in for the US [after the Carter Administration suspended arms sales in 1977 due to human rights violations], ‘becoming Guatemala’s principal supplier. In 1980, the Army was fully re-equipped with Galil rifles [Israeli manufactured] at a cost of $6 million.’
In an infamous massacre, one of many, the Israeli connection was clearly present. At the village of Dos Erres on December 6, 1982. Israeli-trained commandos left the village completely burned down, after shooting, torturing and/or raping over 200 villagers.
A UN investigative team reported: ‘All the ballistic evidence recovered corresponded to bullet fragments from firearms and pods of Galil rifles made in Israel’… This was just in the one village of Dos Erres. The same 12-volume investigation reports that Israeli made Galil rifles were used throughout the highlands…”
Aljazeera has also reported: “Investigative reporter Jeremy Bigwood, who as a photojournalist covered Latin American civil wars in the 1980s and 1990s, confirmed that the Israelis were ‘up to their ears in the genocide’ in Guatemala. He said the Israelis had supplied the military with Arava STOL planes and armoured personnel carriers, and established an ammunition factory in the city of Coban.”
And Spring magazine has noted: “The US suspended military aid to Guatemala in 1977—their human rights abuses were a bad look, so Israel stepped in for them. Israeli president Ephrain Katzir signed an agreement supplying the Guatemalan military with $38 million worth of arms during the civil war period, including rifles, helicopters, equipment for surveillance, and training.”
Trial and acquittal
The Center for Justice & Accountability has noted:
“The [Dos Erres] case was eventually brought to the attention of the Inter-American Human Rights system. In 2008, the Commission referred the case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR), which returned a landmark judgment in 2009, holding that Guatemala had violated the rights to a fair trial and judicial protection under the American Convention on Human Rights by failing to fully investigate the massacre.
In 2010, the Guatemalan Supreme Court ordered a lower court to execute the IACtHR’s decision by enforcing long-outstanding arrest warrants and by re-opening the criminal proceedings. Guatemala issued warrants for the arrest of 17 ex-Kaibiles, many of which are still at large overseas.”
By November 2018, six soldiers had been convicted for their role in this massacre.
On November 7, 2023, a court acquitted thee former Kaibiles accused in the Dos Erres massacre case. Gilberto Jordán, José Mardoqueo Ortiz and Alfonso Bulux Vicente had stood accused of their participation in the massacre.
Accompaniment
FAMDEGUA was accompanied by PBI from 1992 until 1999, when PBI’s Guatemala Project was temporarily closed. In 2023, after receiving a renewed request from the organisation, PBI began accompanying FAMDEGUA again in April.
We continue to follow this case.
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