Massive genocide trial reopens old wounds in Guatemala, 40 years after indigenous slaughter

Juan Brito López was in his mid-20s when soldiers rushed into his home in the village of Pexla, nestled in Guatemala’s western highlands. He escaped, hiding in the wilderness, but could not save his wife and four daughters.

Juan Brito López was in his mid-20s when soldiers rushed into his home in the village of Pexla, nestled in Guatemala’s western highlands. He escaped, hiding in the wilderness, but could not save his wife and four daughters. Now 70 years old, Brito López recounted the horrors of that day to High Risk Court A in Guatemala City this week, saying the soldiers murdered his family during the early morning raid on January 20, 1982, burning their bodies inside their wooden home. Their deaths took place in the middle of Guatemala’s 36-year-long civil war as a series of US-backed military governments cracked down on leftist rebels across the country. Guatemala’s counterinsurgency campaign led to the death of over 200,000 people, 83% of whom were indigenous Maya, according to a United Nations-backed truth commission in 1999. Decades later, the bloodshed is being relived in the high-profile trial of the former head of Guatemala’s army, Manuel Benedicto Lucas García, in a monthslong process that is expected to see more than 150 witnesses, 30 survivors of sexual violence and dozens of forensic experts give testimony. According to Brito López and other witnesses who lived in the western Quiche region, troops under the command of Lucas García killed men, women, and children, driving the indigenous Maya Ixil people who lived there away from their homes. The former laborer, who sometimes broke into tears during his testimony, spoke in front of a large screen broadcasting Lucas García’s impassive figure. Lucas García participated in the proceedings via video link from a military hospital.