Massacre survivor: Soldier who raised him must face justice
Massacre survivor: Soldier who raised him must face justice
Amy Taxin, Associated Press
Updated 3:54 pm, Thursday, August 11, 2016
Photo: Luis Soto, AP
Santos Lopez Alonzo stands in a courtroom as he waits for his first hearing in Guatemala City, Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016. Lopez Alonzo, former Guatemalan soldier suspected of helping carry out a massacre of more than 160 people in 1982 during the country's civil war was deported from the United States on Wednesday after a court refused his plea to stay because he fears for his life.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ramiro Osorio Cristales was 5 years old the day Guatemalan troops dragged his mother and siblings to their deaths in a massacre.
Ripped from his village, which was decimated by the soldiers, Osorio Cristales said he found himself living with a soldier who ordered him to call him "Dad," refused to answer questions about where he came from and made him toil in the pineapple crops while subjecting him to years of physical abuse.
Now 38, Osorio Cristales said he is willing to travel to Guatemala to testify against former soldier Santos Lopez Alonzo, who was deported Wednesday from the United States. He is wanted in the 1982 massacre of more than 200 people in the Guatemalan village during the height of the country's civil war.
"There's nothing left for him but to face justice," Osorio Cristales told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Canada, where he was given asylum. "He has to pay for what he did."
More:
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Guatemalans-Fight-Against-Rogue-Canadian-Mining-Giant-Heats-Up-20160811-0008.html
