PBI-Guatemala accompanies the trial of General Benedicto Lucas accused of genocide against the Maya Ixil people
Photo by PBI-Guatemala.
PBI-Guatemala is accompanying the trial of General Manuel Benedicto Lucas Garcia who is accused of committing genocide against the Maya Ixil people between August 1981 and March 1982 during the Internal Armed Conflict.
He stands accused of genocide, crimes against humanity, forced disappearances and sexual violence.
Now 91 years old, Lucas Garcia is directly accused of being responsible for the deaths of 844 people. As the Chief of Staff of the Army, he identified the Ixil peoples of Santa María Nebaj, San Juan Cotzal, and San Gaspar Chajul as “the enemy within.” In this region, 32 massacres were carried out in more than 20 communities.
More than 50 Indigenous families impacted by the massacres are part of the criminal process against Lucas García through the non-governmental organization Justice and Reconciliation Association (AJR).
The trial is expected to continue into June.
An estimated 200,000 people were killed during the internal armed conflict, that took place from 1960 to 1996. More than 80 per cent of those killed were Indigenous Maya. The final report of the United Nations-backed Commission for Historical Clarification (CEH) released in February 1999 found that the military committed acts of genocide against five of the country’s 22 different Maya peoples, including the Ixil, between 1981 and 1983.
Image by FGER.
UPDATED
May 3: “Yesterday #PBI accompanied the oral and public debate against the former general Manuel Benedicto Lucas Garcia for the case #GenocideIxil. Testimonies of survivors of the massacres perpetrated by the Guatemalan army between 1981 and 1982 against the Mayan people Ixil in the Quiché continued to be heard.”
April 26: “PBI accompanies the case #GenocidioIxil. During the hearing, expert testimony was heard about the consequences of the massacres against the civilian population.”
April 25: “PBI accompanies the Association for Justice and Reconciliation -AJR- to a hearing of the #CaseGenocidioIxil, in which they and the Public Prosecutor’s Office presented four witnesses who suffered serious human rights violations that occurred in 1982 by the army during the internal armed conflict (CAI). The next hearings will take place on 26, 29 and 30 April.”
April 23: “PBI accompanies the trial against Benedicto Lucas García for the #GenocidioIxil case. Today the testimonies of 3 Ixil women survivors of sexual violence suffered during the war continued. Indigenous women from different territories of the country, among others from the Ixcán region and the Achís women, were at the hearing to show solidarity with the witnesses. The trial will continue Thursday 25 April at 8.30am on the 15th level of the Court Tower.”
April 22: “PBI accompanies the #GenocidioIxil case hearings. Before entering the hearing, the Ixil women, accompanied by solidarity organizations, recited an invocation to ask for strength for this week, in which women survivors will testify about the sexual violence suffered during the war in the Ixil area.”
Additional context
Prensa Comunitaria has reported:
“The trial against the former chief of staff of the army, Benedicto Lucas, began this Friday [April 5] in the High Risk Court ‘A’, presided over by Judge Gervi Sical. The facts on trial are the deaths of 844 people of the Mayan Ixil ethnic group between 1981 and 1982, when Lucas was chief of staff of the army.
According to the prosecutor’s office, when the general held the position of chief of staff of the army, between August 16, 1981, and March 23, 1982, the attack against the Mayan Ixil population, north of Quiché, in the municipalities of Nebaj, Cotzal and Chajul, intensified.
This area was declared red by the Chief of Staff with the intention of destroying this population because they were considered to support the Guerrilla Army of the Poor (EGP), one of the four guerrilla groups during the internal armed conflict.
Lucas is accused of being the mastermind behind the deaths of the 844 people who have been identified by witnesses and expert witnesses. In addition, there are 71 victims of individual deaths, 12 communities displaced by the army, looting and destruction of 18 communities, 16 victims of sexual violence and 42 victims of enforced disappearance.
In this trial, the prosecution will seek to prove genocide. In addition, it has the testimony of 152 witnesses who will attend the hearing and narrate how they experienced the massacres in their communities and who suffered displacement to the mountains. The army burned their houses and crops, seeking the death of the survivors. A total of 81 experts will also be heard.”
Regeneracion adds: “In May 2018, Lucas García was sentenced along with [retired General Manuel Callejas y Callejas, who was the head of the Military Intelligence Directorate] and two other military officers to 58 years in prison. This is due to the forced disappearance of the teenager Marco Antonio Molina Theissen and the rape and torture of his sister Emma Guadalupe in 1981.”
Photo: Emma Guadalupe Molina Theissen and her mother who is holding a photograph of Marco Antonio Molina Theissen.
We continue to follow this.
Further reading: Israel and Genocide: Not Only In Gaza by Mark Lewis Taylor, CounterPunch, December 22, 2023.
#CasoGenocidioIxil #GenocidioIxil
Photo: General Benedicto Lucas Garcia points at a map, January 19, 1982. Photo by Robert Nickelsberg/Archive Photos/Getty Images.
Photo: At the proceedings via video link.
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