A Guatemalan court imposes sentences of seven to nine years on soldiers for the murder of indigenous people

A Guatemalan court on Wednesday sentenced seven soldiers to prison terms of between 7 and 9 years for the murder of six Mayan K'iche' indigenous people, which occurred in 2012, and acquitted two more, including a colonel.

The ruling was criticized by the victims' families and lawyers, who regretted the "minimum sentences" that were imposed on those responsible and called the judges' decision "racist."

The massacre known as the “Alaska Summit” was perpetrated on October 4, 2012, when hundreds of members of the recognized indigenous organization 48 Cantones of Totonicapán blocked the passage at kilometer 169-170 of the Inter-American route, to the west. of the Central American country, in protest against the increase in electric energy and other social demands.

According to the version of the government of then-president Otto Pérez Molina, a retired general convicted of corruption, a security guard guarding a cement truck fired his gun to clear a path through the protesters.

This angered the people and caused the military to shoot “into the air” to evict the Protestants.

The balance was six people dead and 34 injured.

The prosecution presented at least 150 testimonies that agreed that the soldiers attacked the indigenous people and asked that they be sentenced for extrajudicial execution and attempted extrajudicial execution that sought sentences of between 16 to 25 years.

However, the court in charge of the case explained during the hearing that these crimes did not correspond and that although the witnesses pointed out the Army, none of them could “individualize” the attacker.

Therefore, he acquitted two of the 9 accused, including a colonel, Juan Chiroy.

Chiroy always denied giving the order or shooting at the protesters.

The remaining seven were convicted of the crimes of injury in a fight, manslaughter and shooting with a firearm with sentences ranging between 7 years 10 months and 9 years 2 months.

“I'm sorry, but we as judges have to make an objective decision based on the evidence provided in the debate.

Of the majority of the witnesses, none of them identified any accused person,” Marling González, one of the court judges, said at the hearing.

Discontent with the ruling

Outside the court, members of the 48 Cantons and relatives of the victims arrived in the morning to wait for the ruling. During the day they celebrated a Mayan ceremony, a mass and placed banners demanding justice.

At night, at the end of the hearing, the indigenous lawyers and authorities held a press conference.

“We deeply reject the bias on the part of the judges.

The fact that they determined the sentence is a form of racism,” said Edin Rafael Zapeta, president of the 48 Cantons.

Lawyer Luca Xiloj, for her part, warned that they will appeal the sentence.

“There was a poor analysis of the extrajudicial execution.

“We are going to analyze challenging the sentence,” she said.

In October 2012, the 48 Cantons indicated that this was the first time that soldiers had shot at indigenous people, after the signing of the 1996 peace agreements that ended 36 years of civil war in which 200,000 Guatemalans died, in their indigenous majority.

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