27 January 2025
On January 28, 2025, a second trial in the Maya Achi women’s case began in Guatemala, against three former self defence patrollers (PAC) accused of sexual violence and crimes against humanity against Maya Achi indigenous women from Rabinal, Baja Verapaz, Guatemala, during the armed conflict between 1981 and 1985.
The Achi Women Case is one of the most emblematic cases of sexual violence in the internal armed conflict because it illustrates the brutality with which the army and paramilitary groups used rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war to attack women and subjugate the indigenous communities under their control.
The three paramilitaries facing trial had been detained in 2018, and should have been tried with the other 5 former paramilitaries judged and convicted in the first trial in January 2022. However, they were set free in 2019, due to an arbitrary decision from Judge Claudette Dominguez. The survivors’ lawyers presented an appeal for this decision, and in July 2023 the Court of Appeals resolved that they must face trial.
The second trial will take place in the High-Risk Court B, presided by judge Maria Eugenia Castellanos Cruz, and joined by the judges Marling Mayela González Arrivillaga and Missulla Eunice Solís Rodas. The Association Popular Legal Firm of Rabinal (ABJP) and the survivors will participate as plaintiffs. They will be represented before the court by the three female indigenous lawyers who participated in the first trial: Lucía Xiloj, Gloria Reyes, and Haydeé Valey. At the original trial, Haydeé Valey said: “The guilty verdict is a way to dignify the strength and courage that these women had in breaking the silence”.
The survivors have faced the fear and stigma that generally accompanies this type of incident and have sought justice, despite the great obstacles presented by the criminal justice system. The sentences demonstrate the responsibility of the state and the army in the crimes committed against women, and the national and international obligation to make reparations to the survivors, their families and their communities.
To learn more, read our bulletin on the second trial in Spanish.
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