Limited justice in the Guatemalan 1982 Rancho Bejuco massacre case

6 September 2023

On 24 August 2023, the High-Risk Court of Guatemala City sentenced one former military commander, Juan Ovalle Salazar to 20 years in prison for crimes against humanity in the Rancho Bejuco massacre in Guatemala. Eight other military commissioners who similarly engaged in such crimes, were acquitted.

The massacre on 29 July 1982 occurred during the dictatorship of Efrain Rios Montt, resulting in the killings of 25 people, including 17 children. The trial against the perpetrators began on 7 June 2023, lasting 16 days. During this time, the Prosecutor’s Office presented a series of documented evidence, as well as 7 expert witness reports, six of whom were heard in court and the testimony of 4 witnesses, families of the victims and from the community.Towards the end of the trial, the judges also heard the intervention of three indigenous Maya Achi women who served as plaintiffs in the case to present their last demands for justice.

Despite this, the judges ruled that the evidence presented by the prosecutors and the victims’ lawyers was not enough to determine the implication of the eight acquitted, ignoring the testimony of the people that identified them as perpetrators.

This verdict was a disappointment for family members of the victims, who have sought justice since 1997, and have seen very little progress for nearly two decades.

“We are fighting for justice because we do not want everything we suffered to remain in impunity… [we hope] that, in our society, these inhumane crimes are never again committed.” –Paulina Ixpatá Alvarado, one of 36 survivors in the Maya Achi women’s case

The lawyers questioned the arguments used by the judges, and will be presenting an appeal to secure long-awaited justice for victims. The victims said that they were glad Ovalle had been found guilty but regretted the others were not, with Paulina Ixpatá adding that “there is no true justice here”.

Remembering the victims of the Rancho Bejuco massacre

The Rancho Bejuco massacre demonstrates the systemic violence instrumentalised by the Guatemalan army against the Maya Achi people, and the use of Civil Self-Defense Patrols (Patrullas de Autodefensa Civil, PAC) to commit crimes against humanity. The prosecutor’s office estimates that 68% of the victims were children–highlighting the brutality of the scorched earth policy implemented under the rule of former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt (1982-1983).

On the last day of the trial, when the sentence was read, the victims held a Mayan ceremony to remember their loved ones. They held pictures of them and included their names in a commemorative act in the Human Rights Plaza outside the Supreme Court of Justice.

To ensure the victims themselves are not forgotten, the graphic below includes their names, sex, and ages.

In a hearing on 29 August 2023, the tribunal granted 6 reparations measures out of the 10 requested by the victims. These include:

• Rehabilitation including culturally-sensitive psychological assistance for victims and their families
• Formal recognition by the State, and public commemoration of the victims
• Guarantees of non-repetition through training programs on international human rights to armed forces and the judiciary school, and security for victims and their families

Ongoing transitional justice efforts for the Maya Achi

This is the fifth time that a case related to serious crimes committed against the Maya Achi people of Rabinal has gone to trial in a national court in Guatemala. The first was the Case of the Río Negro massacre, with convictions against different groups of military commissioners and civil patrollers handed down in October 1999, May 2008 and September 2008. The second was the Case of Anabella Garniga Osorio, in which a military commissioner was convicted in August 2001. The third was the Case of the Plan de Sánchez massacre, with a sentence against one military commissioner and four civil patrollers in March 2012. The fourth was the Maya Achi women’s case in which five civil patrollers were convicted in January 2022.

Explore a bulletin of the cases below:

English summary Spanish summary