Dos Erres massacre

The Dos Erres massacre of 6 December 1982 took place in Dos Erres, a small village in the municipality of La Libertad, in the northern Petén department of Guatemala. The name of the village, occasionally given as "Las Dos Erres", literally means "2R's", originating from two brothers called Ruano who received the original land grant.^[1]

On 6 December 1982, during the de facto presidency of General Efraín Ríos Montt, over 200 people – including women, the elderly, and children – were massacred there by government forces as a part of the government's scorched earth policy, in which up to 200,000 indigenous and Mayan people died.^[1]

Dos Erres massacre

In October 1982, guerrillas ambushed an army convoy near Palestina, in the vicinity of Dos Erres. They killed 21 soldiers and took 19 rifles. On 4 December, a contingent of 58 Kaibiles (the elite special forces commandos of the Guatemalan Army) was flown into the area. The following day, they received orders to disguise themselves as guerrillas, deploy to Dos Erres and kill the inhabitants, who were considered guerrilla sympathizers. Dressed as guerrillas, the Kaibiles arrived in the hamlet at 02:30 hrs on 6 December. They forced the inhabitants out of their homes, corralling the men in the schoolhouse and the women and children in the hamlet's two churches. A subsequent search uncovered no sign of weapons or guerrilla propaganda. At 06:00, officers consulted superiors by radio, then informed the commandos they would be "vaccinating" the inhabitants after breakfast.^[1]

In the early afternoon, the Kaibiles separated out the children, and began killing them. They bashed the smallest children's heads against walls and trees, and killed the older ones with hammer blows to the head. Their bodies were dumped in a well. Next, the commandos interrogated the men and women one by one, then shot or bashed them with the hammer, and dumped them in the well. They raped women and girls, and ripped the fetuses out of pregnant women. The massacre continued throughout 7 December. On the morning of 8 December, as the Kaibiles were preparing to leave, another 15 persons, among them children, arrived in the hamlet. With the well already full, they took the newcomers to a location half an hour away, then shot all but two of them. To maintain the pretence that they were a guerrilla column, they kept two teenage girls for the next few days, raping them repeatedly and finally strangling them once they were no longer useful.^[1]

Judicial proceedings

In 1994 a case was presented in Guatemala to investigate and bring to trial those responsible for the massacre. However, the case remained paralysed in Guatemala's justice system and showed no signs of progress.^[2]

In 2000, President Alfonso Portillo admitted government responsibility for the massacre. He acknowledged the deaths of 226 victims at the hands of state agents, humbly asked for forgiveness on behalf of the state, and presented survivors' groups with a cheque totaling USD $1.82 million.^{[2] [3]}

In 2009, the IACHR held that the amnesty law of 1996 did not apply to the most serious crimes committed during the civil war.^[4] This was followed by investigations in the United States against people suspected of involvement in the massacre. ^[4] In May 2010, Gilberto Jordan, naturalized American and former member of the Kaibiles special forces, was accused of involvement in the massacre and arrested in Florida by U.S. Immigration and Customs officers.^[5] On 16 September 2010, after his role in the massacre was established in a Miami court, Jordan was convicted for naturalization fraud and serving a 10-year prison sentence in FCI Miami.^[6] He is expected to be released on 29 March 2019.^[7]

On the 25th of July 2011, trials began in Guatemala City against four former soldiers of the Kaibiles special forces accused of participating in the massacre.^[3] On the 2nd of August 2011, a court found the three soldiers, Manuel Pop, Reyes Collin Gualip, Daniel Martínez Hernández and Lieutenant Carlos Carías guilty of the massacre.^[8] They were sentenced to over 6,000 years each in prison,^[9] of which they are expected to serve the legal maximum of 50 years.^[10][11]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} CEH [Comisión de Esclarecimiento Histórico] (1999). "Caso ilustrativo no. 31 - Masacre de las Dos Erres" (online reproduction by the Science and Human Rights Program of the AAAS). Guatemala, Memoria del silencio. Guatemala City: CEH. ISBN 99922-54-00-9. OCLC 47279275. http://shr.aaas.org/guatemala/ceh/mds/spanish/anexo1/vol1/no31.html. Retrieved 2008-12-12. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Amnesty International (5 December 2008). "Still no justice for Guatemala massacre victims after 26 years". amnesty.org. http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/still-justice-guatemala-massacre-victims-after-26-years-20081205. 
3. ^ ^{a b} BBC News (25 July 2011). "Guatemala Las Dos Erres civil war massacre trial begins". bbc.co.uk. http://www.rtfcam.org/report/volume_21/No_5/article_5.htm. 
4. ^ ^{a b} Matt McAllester, US rounds up Guatemalans accused of war crimes, Global Post, 5 mai 2010
5. ^ Former Guatemalan Soldier Arrested for Alleged Role in Dos Erres Massacre, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book n°316, 7 mai 2010
6. ^ "Former Guatemalan Special Forces Soldier Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison for Making False Statements on Naturalization Forms Regarding 1982 Massacre of Guatemalan Villagers". United States Department of Justice. September 10, 2010. http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/September/10-crm-1042.html. Retrieved March 3, 2011. 
7. ^ "U.S. Bureau of Prisons website profile of Gilberto Jordan; BOP# 73526-004; projected/actual release date: March 23, 2019". United States Department of Justice. http://www.bop.gov/iloc2/InmateFinderServlet?Transaction=NameSearch&needingMoreList=false&FirstName=Gilberto&Middle=&LastName=Jordan&Race=U&Sex=U&Age=&x=0&y=0. Retrieved March 3, 2011. 
8. ^ Prensa Libre. (2 August 2011). Condenan a 6 mil 60 años de prisión a exkaibiles por masacre Dos Erres.
9. ^ "Guatemala Dos Erres massacre soldiers sentenced". BBC News. 3 August 2011. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-14383071. Retrieved 2011-08-03. 
10. ^ Noticias de Guatemala. (4 August 2011). La ONU expresa satisfacción por la sentencia emitida contra cuatro ex militares
11. ^ Democracy Now! News report August 4, 2011

• The earliest version of the massacre narrative was modified and edited from Guatemala: Kaibiles and the Massacre at Las Dos Erres, a public domain information request response document of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

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