Dos Erres massacre
1982 government killing of civilians in El Petén, Guatemala / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Dos Erres massacre of 6 December 1982 took place in Dos Erres, a small village in the municipality of La Libertad, in the northern Petén department of Guatemala. The name of the village, occasionally given as "Las Dos Erres", literally means "two Rs", originating from two brothers called Ruano who received the original land grant.[1]
Dos Erres massacre | |
---|---|
Part of the Guatemalan Civil War | |
Location | Dos Erres, Guatemala |
Date | 6–8 December 1982; 41 years ago (1982-12-08) |
Target | Civilians of Dos Erres |
Attack type | Massacre |
Deaths | 200+ |
Perpetrators | Kaibiles |
Convicted |
|
On 6 December 1982, during the de facto presidency of General Efraín Ríos Montt, over 200 people were killed in Dos Erres by commandos working as government forces as a part of the government's scorched earth policy, in which up to 200,000 indigenous and Mayan people died.[1]
In December 2011, President Álvaro Colom made a formal apology for the massacre on behalf of the Guatemalan government. Months later, four soldiers were sentenced to 6,060 years prison for their part in the massacre.[2] In March 2012, a fifth soldier, Pedro Pimentel Ríos, was sentenced to 6,060 years in prison for his participation in the events.[3] In fall 2013, Jorge Vinicio Sosa Orantes, "one of the lieutenants" of the commandos, was found guilty of immigration fraud in a court in California and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Another soldier who later became a naturalized American, Gilberto Jordan, had been found guilty of naturalization fraud in September 2010. He also received a 10-year sentence, and has since been deported to Guatemala.[4][5]