PBI-Guatemala observes the final hearing of the Mujeres Achi case in which paramilitary members sentenced to prison

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On May 31, PBI-Guatemala posted:

“Yesterday, #PBI observed the final hearing in the Mujeres Achí [Indigenous Achi women] case, in which the sentence was handed down: 40 years in prison for the three former PAC [Civil Self-Defence Patrols] members for crimes against humanity.

The court recognized the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war within the framework of counterinsurgency doctrine, and affirmed that this violence caused not only physical but also psychological harm, damaging the lives of the women who were raped and affecting the fabric of their families and communities.

This ruling marks the end of the long journey undertaken by these brave women in search of justice and paves the way for dignified reparations and the non-repetition of such atrocious crimes.”

Prensa Comunitaria reports: “The criminal process began four months ago, on January 28. But the struggle of the Maya Achi’ women began more than forty years ago, between 1981 and 1983, when the military and paramilitaries arrived in the town of Rabinal, Baja Verapaz. There is no word in the Achi’ language to name what the soldiers did. The survivors say that ‘men passed over them, who hurt them, who ruined them.’”

El Pais also reports: “A Guatemalan court on Friday [May 30] sentenced three former paramilitaries to 40 years in prison for sexually abusing six indigenous women during the bloodiest years of the civil war [1981-1983].”

“[One of the women, Pedrina Ixpatá Rodríguez], originally from Rabinal, Alta Verapaz, an indigenous town located in the southeast of the country, was locked up for 25 days in the detachment along with her cousin, Paulina Ixpatá, and other women who were interrogated, tortured and subjected to continuous sexual abuse.”

“Pedro Sánchez Cortez, Simeón Enríquez Gómez and Félix Tum Ramírez are the former paramilitaries sentenced for crimes against the duties of humanity in the form of sexual violence. They will be under house arrest until the sentence is final, according to the court.”

The El Pais article further notes: “At the end of the hearing, the people in the courtroom applauded the verdict. While outside the building, banners demanding justice were placed and members of human rights organizations waited for the women to celebrate the ruling.”

Next hearing, June 4

Prensa Comunitaria adds: “What follows for the Achi’ women is the hearing to establish the measures of dignified reparation, which the survivors demand from the State of Guatemala as compensation for the physical, psychological, economic and cultural damage that sexual violence caused them and their communities. Economic compensation, installation of health posts and actions to protect and teach the historical memory of the internal armed conflict and the Mayan peoples, are some of the requests. The hearing was scheduled for June 4.”

Internal Armed Conflict, genocide

In September 2018, Aljazeera reported: “Guatemalan judges have unanimously ruled that the country’s military carried out genocide and crimes against humanity… Over the course of the war, which began in 1960 and formally ended in 1996, more than 200,000 people were killed and another 43,000 were forcibly disappeared. More than 80 percent of the victims were indigenous Maya people.”

Five years earlier, on May 10, 2013, the former president of Guatemala Rios Montt was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity. He was the president from March 23, 1982, to August 8, 1983, a period that overlaps with the convictions issued yesterday by the court in the Mujeres Achi case.

The New York City-based North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) has previously highlighted: “Israeli press reported that 300 Israeli advisors helped execute the [March 1982 military coup that brought Montt to power]… Through the height of la violencia (‘the violence’) or desencarnacíon (‘loss of flesh, loss of being’), between the late 1970s to early 1980s, Israel assisted every facet of attack on the Guatemalan people. [Israel was the] main provider of counterinsurgency training, light and heavy arsenals of weaponry, aircraft, state-of-the-art intelligence technology and infrastructure, and other vital assistance.”

Accompaniment

PBI-Guatemala has been following the process closely and observing the hearings. PBI-Canada documented some of the work of our colleagues in these articles:

PBI-Guatemala accompanies the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR) at #MujeresAchí trial (January 30, 2025).

PBI-Guatemala observes trial of PAC members accused of violations against Indigenous Achi women during the internal armed conflict (February 21, 2025).

PBI-Guatemala observes hearing of former paramilitary members accused of sexual violence against Mayan Achi women (April 17, 2025).


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