It is estimated that at least 5,000 Mayans in the Rabinal area were massacred in 1981-1982. The pit was covered with stones and branches. In a trench they put the corpses.
BOSTON – A Guatemalan national wanted for his role in the 1980s massacre of indigenous Guatemalans was charged yesterday in federal court in Boston. Beginning in the early 1980s, there were a series of attacks committed against the indigenous Maya Achi people of Rio Negro, in and around the municipality of Rabinal, in Guatemala. After going through Coban, they dispersed throughout Guatemala. Cases against 45 other civil patrollers are still open, but no charges have been brought. The head of the Patrol Xococ that received them accused them of participating in the guerrilla and of burning their market. All over the Guatemalan countryside, victims say they are afraid to speak A month later, on March 13, 1982, at six o'clock, 12 members of the army patrol accompanied by 15 patrols of the Xococ village, entered the community of Río Negro. As a result of the fact that the Army identified the peasants of Río Negro with the guerrillas, residents of Xococ broke trade relations with Río Negro and declared them their enemies. They maintained continuous surveillance to avoid being surprised by the PACs and soldiers. Alongside the church is a small municipal museum, with exhibits on the local culture (particularly native healing techniques) and a section dealing with the massacres of the 1980s. The inhabitants of Rio Negro replied that the market was a benefit for them and that they had no reason to burn it. The diligence of exhumation of corpses, practised 12 years later, established the existence, in three graves, skeletons of 143, 85 of which belonged to children, and the rest to women.On the day after the slaughter, a person who had been hiding in the bush, returned to the community to look for his wife and children: "I was crying myself, brought sheets because I thought my kids were thrown somewhere. In 1978 many people in the community moved their homes to bring them high land that would not be inundated by flood waters. When they finished eating, they looted the village. The Guatemalan Army used the local civilians -- known as military commissioners Memorias del genocidio.
than RABINAL, Guatemala -- The trial has ended, and the guilty verdict has come CHART 9 (Number of Massacre Victims-Rabinal):In 1981, 422 Rabinal Achi fell victim to massacres under Lucas Garcia - an average of 35 massacre victims per month. All the houses were burnt. "A child like the one I carry now [said one survivor carrying an infant at the time of the interview] was carried by the hair and threw once and again against the stones".
On May 27, 1996 the hearing was adjourned at the trial, because the defence requested the application of the amnesty decree 32/88, which was denied by the courts. Eighteen surviving children were taken away by the attackers towards the community. After multiple delays, on Monday November 9, 1998 began the trial that ended with the conviction, issued on November 30 by the trial court of Rabinal, which was imposed in the first instance death penalty against three former members of the CAP Xococ, accused of being the perpetrators of the slaughter of Río Negro. Minister of National Defence responded on January 5, 1998, declined to comment, arguing that this case was subject to judicial process in the tribunals. The charging statute provides for a sentence of no greater than two years in prison, one year of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. As a declarant said: "After the slaughter, people left and the place began to fill with water, as simple as that". The grounds are "poor, it is not usable nothing, or for grazing our animals". A survivor said that INDE explained the situation to the representatives of the village in the following terms: "Even if you do not want to leave, since the President signed the contract already, you can not stop the project because it has already been approved. In February 1982 a group of armed men, possibly guerrillas, burned the market of Xococ, killing five persons. We remain stranded and without spirit since that day". In June 1978 the Government declared the area in national emergency due to the flood caused by the building of the dam.