6,060 year sentence in Guatemala only a beginning

The Historical Clarification Commission (CEH) for Guatemala documented 669 massacres during the thirty-six year conflict (see a graphic here.) The CEH attributed 626 collective killings of defenseless populations to the state.

And as is known from the Dos Erres case, it's not just the number of people killed.

"The CEH has noted particularly serious cruelty in many acts committed by agents of the State, especially members of the Army, in their operations against Mayan communities. The counterinsurgency strategy not only led to violations of basic human rights, but also to the fact that these crimes were committed with particular cruelty, with massacres representing their archetypal form. In the majority of massacres there is evidence of multiple acts of savagery, which preceded, accompanied, or occurred after the deaths of the victims.... [These] atrocious acts, were not only actions of extreme cruelty against the victims, but also morally degraded the perpetrators and those who inspired, ordered or tolerated these actions." (The full report can be found here.)

There's still a need to go after the intellectual authors of the slaughter, not just those who carried out the orders.

Mike Allison is an assistant professor in the Political Science Department and a member of the Latin American and Women's Studies Department at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania. You can follow his Central American Politics blog here.