Seeking justice for Guatemalan village where hundreds were raped, tortured, killed

Seeking justice for Guatemalan village where hundreds were raped, tortured, killed
By Lomi Kriel
Updated 12:59 p.m., Saturday, May 26, 2012

GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala - In 1982, the Guatemalan Army attacked a tiny village in the desolate northern region of Peten, raping, torturing and killing at least 200 peasants, including pregnant women and infants, tossing their bodies in a well and wiping the village off the map.

For years, no one revealed what had occurred because they were afraid. It was only 12 years later - as Guatemala's civil war was drawing to a close - when some relatives confided in their priests, setting in motion two decades of seeking justice. Culminating with a judge's ruling this week, the massacre of Dos Erres could make Guatemala the first Latin American nation to try a dictator for genocide - a remarkable feat for a country riddled with impunity and whose military, until now, has seemed untouchable.

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"It's huge, both because it sets a precedent in the Americas but also because this was a tremendous wound on the psyche of Guatemalans," said Eric Olson, senior associate at the Mexican Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Not only has the case of Dos Erres succeeded in holding some of Guatemala's war criminals accountable, it also reveals how U.S. officials knew about the atrocities that occurred but did nothing. In fact, a month after receiving reports that the military had committed the massacre, President Ronald Reagan affirmed his support of Montt, whose "scorched earth" tactics meant, at its height, about 3,000 people were killed or disappeared a month.

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