Dos Erres

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Dos Erres (Spanish for " two Rs ") is a Guatemalan village in the north of the country. It is located in the department of Petén .

massacre

In the course of the Guatemalan civil war (1960 to 1996), a massacre took place in Dos Erres in December 1982, in which 252 people were killed.

course

According to the UN Truth Commission Comisión para el Esclarecimiento Histórico , 58 soldiers from the elite Kabil 201 unit disguised as guerrillas entered the village in the early morning hours of December 7, 1982 . By the afternoon of the following day they killed all residents, including women, children and pregnant women, of whom they could get hold. Most of the victims were beaten to death with hammers, women and girls were sometimes raped before they were murdered, and small children were thrown against the wall until they were dead. Only when the soldiers were tired did they start shooting the remaining victims. Most of the victims were thrown into a well until it overflowed. There were only two survivors. One child was able to hide and another was adopted by Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Antonio Carías , the leader of the unit.

Legal processing

The massacre was reported to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights by NGOs in 2000 . This instructed Guatemala to open a criminal case, which was delayed by the lawyers of the defense by mass requests.

At the end of 2009, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights sentenced the state of Guatemala to pay three million dollars (then about 2.9 million euros) to the relatives of the victims. The reason given was the failure of the state to investigate the massacre.

The trial was only opened in Guatemala City on July 25, 2011 . Carías and three of his subordinates are charged. His adopted son is one of the main witnesses. Of the soldiers involved, 18 have been identified. Two of them died before the trial began and eight are on the run. A separate process is opened against the remaining four.

On August 2, Carías was sentenced to 6,066 and three of his subordinates to 6,060 years' imprisonment each for the murder of 201 men, women and children and for “crimes against humanity and endangering state security” . In practice, however, imprisonment in Guatemala is limited to 50 years. The "Army Veterans Association" protested the verdict. The convicts fought communism and only did their duty.

On March 13, 2012, a fifth member of Kabil 201 was sentenced to 6,066 years in prison. The 54-year-old at the time of his conviction was working as an instructor in the unit.

Commemoration

On December 7, 2013, the 31st anniversary of the massacre, the bones of 163 victims were handed over to their families.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Toni Keppeler: After 30 years in court. In: the daily newspaper . July 25, 2011. Retrieved July 25, 2011 .
  2. ↑ a b Defendants acted “perversely”. In: ORF . August 3, 2011, accessed August 3, 2011 .
  3. ^ A b Toni Keppeler: 6,060 years imprisonment for soldiers. In: the daily newspaper. August 3, 2011, accessed August 3, 2011 .
  4. ↑ By court order. In: ORF. August 3, 2011, accessed August 3, 2011 .
  5. ^ Ex-soldier sentenced to 6,060 years in prison. In: ORF. March 13, 2012, accessed March 13, 2012 .
  6. ↑ Return of the dead. In: the daily newspaper. December 7, 2013, accessed December 9, 2013 .

Coordinates: 16 ° 55 ′  N , 90 ° 18 ′  W