Latest news with #MayaAchi
RNZ News
3 days ago
- General
- RNZ News
Guatemalan ex-paramilitaries sentenced to 40 years each in Maya Achi rape trial
Former paramilitaries Simeon Enriquez (L), Pedro Sanchez (C), and Felix Tum (R) react after being sentenced to 40 years in prison for rape. Photo: AFP / JOHAN ORDONEZ By Sofia Menchu , Reuters Warning: This article discusses sexual assault and may be upsetting to some readers. A top Guatemalan court on Friday (local time) sentenced three former paramilitaries each to 40 years in prison after they were found guilty of raping six Indigenous women between 1981 and 1983, the bloodiest period of the Central American nation's civil war. The trial against the former members of the so-called Civil Self-Defense Patrol, armed groups recruited by the army, began four months ago. "The soldiers arrived late at night, threw me onto the ground and raped me," Paulina Ixpata, a Maya Achi woman, said during the trial. Prosecutors presented more than 160 pieces of evidence against the men. "That's how the whole night went," Ixpata said, recounting how she was held for 25 days by the military patrol. Judge Maria Eugenia Castellanos sentenced the three for crimes against humanity in the form of sexual violence. "The women recognised the perpetrators, they recognised the places where the events took place. They were victims of crimes against humanity," she said. Guatemalan Achi Indigenous women, victims of sexual violence during the internal armed conflict. Photo: AFP / JOHAN ORDONEZ This is the second trial in the so-called Maya Achi case, and follows reports of sexual violence filed between 2011 and 2015 by 36 victims against former military personnel, military commissioners and civilian self-defence patrol members. The first trial, which took place in January 2022, saw five former patrol members sentenced to 30 years in prison. They remain incarcerated. In 2016, a Guatemalan court sentenced two former military officers for holding 15 women from the Q'eqchi community, who are also of Maya origin, as sex slaves at the Sepur Zarco military base, a landmark case that marked the first convictions in Guatemala of military officers for wartime rape. Both officers were sentenced to a combined 360 years in prison, where they remain incarcerated. The court also stipulated a reparations program, whose progress remains limited despite advocacy by the 15 women who were at the trial, known as the "Grandmothers of Sepur Zarco". - Reuters
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Guatemala jails ex-paramilitaries for 40 years over rapes during civil war
A top Guatemalan court has sentenced three former paramilitaries to 40 years each in prison after they were found guilty of raping six Indigenous women between 1981 and 1983, one of the bloodiest periods of the Central American nation's civil war. The conviction and sentencing on Friday mark another significant step towards attaining justice for the Maya Achi Indigenous women, who were sexually abused by pro-government armed groups, during a period of extreme bloodshed between the military and left-wing rebels that left as many as 200,000 dead or missing. Former Civil Self-Defence Patrol members Pedro Sanchez, Simeon Enriquez and Felix Tum were found guilty of crimes against humanity for sexually assaulting six members of the Maya Achi group, Judge Maria Eugenia Castellanos said. 'The women recognised the perpetrators, they recognised the places where the events took place. They were victims of crimes against humanity,' she said, praising the women's bravery in coming to court to testify on repeated occasions. 'They are crimes of solitude that stigmatise the woman. It is not easy to speak of them,' the judge said. Indigenous lawyer Haydee Valey, who represented the women, said the sentence was 'historic' because it finally recognised the struggle of civil war survivors who had demanded justice for decades. Several Maya Achi women in the courtroom applauded at the end of the trial, where some dressed in traditional attire and others listened to the verdict through an interpreter. One of the victims, a 62-year-old woman, told the AFP news agency she was 'very happy' with the verdict. Pedro Sanchez, one of the three men convicted, told the court before the sentencing, 'I am innocent of what they are accusing me of.' But Judge Marling Mayela Gonzalez Arrivillaga, another member of the all-women, three-panel court, said there was no doubt about the women's testimony against the suspects. The convictions were second in the Maya Achi women's case against former military personnel and paramilitaries. The first trial, which took place in January 2022, saw five former paramilitaries sentenced to 30 years in prison. Advocacy group Impunity Watch said the case 'highlights how the Guatemalan army used sexual violence as a weapon of war against Indigenous women' during the civil conflict. In 2016, a Guatemalan court sentenced two former military officers for holding 15 women from the Q'eqchi community, who are also of Maya origin, as sex slaves. Both officers were sentenced to a combined 360 years in prison.
Al Jazeera
3 days ago
- General
- Al Jazeera
Guatemala jails ex-paramilitaries for 40 years over rapes during civil war
A top Guatemalan court has sentenced three former paramilitaries to 40 years each in prison after they were found guilty of raping six Indigenous women between 1981 and 1983, one of the bloodiest periods of the Central American nation's civil war. The conviction and sentencing on Friday mark another significant step towards attaining justice for the Maya Achi Indigenous women, who were sexually abused by pro-government armed groups, during a period of extreme bloodshed between the military and left-wing rebels that left as many as 200,000 dead or missing. Former Civil Self-Defence Patrol members Pedro Sanchez, Simeon Enriquez and Felix Tum were found guilty of crimes against humanity for sexually assaulting six members of the Maya Achi group, Judge Maria Eugenia Castellanos said. 'The women recognised the perpetrators, they recognised the places where the events took place. They were victims of crimes against humanity,' she said, praising the women's bravery in coming to court to testify on repeated occasions. 'They are crimes of solitude that stigmatise the woman. It is not easy to speak of them,' the judge said. Indigenous lawyer Haydee Valey, who represented the women, said the sentence was 'historic' because it finally recognised the struggle of civil war survivors who had demanded justice for decades. Several Maya Achi women in the courtroom applauded at the end of the trial, where some dressed in traditional attire and others listened to the verdict through an interpreter. One of the victims, a 62-year-old woman, told the AFP news agency she was 'very happy' with the verdict. Pedro Sanchez, one of the three men convicted, told the court before the sentencing, 'I am innocent of what they are accusing me of.' But Judge Marling Mayela Gonzalez Arrivillaga, another member of the all-women, three-panel court, said there was no doubt about the women's testimony against the suspects. The convictions were second in the Maya Achi women's case against former military personnel and paramilitaries. The first trial, which took place in January 2022, saw five former paramilitaries sentenced to 30 years in prison. Advocacy group Impunity Watch said the case 'highlights how the Guatemalan army used sexual violence as a weapon of war against Indigenous women' during the civil conflict. In 2016, a Guatemalan court sentenced two former military officers for holding 15 women from the Q'eqchi community, who are also of Maya origin, as sex slaves. Both officers were sentenced to a combined 360 years in prison.
Free Malaysia Today
4 days ago
- General
- Free Malaysia Today
Ex-Guatemalan paramilitaries jailed for raping indigenous women
The former paramilitaries were found guilty of raping six indigenous women between 1981 and 1983. (EPA Images pic) GUATEMALA CITY : A top Guatemalan court today sentenced three former paramilitaries each to 40 years in prison after they were found guilty of raping six indigenous women between 1981 and 1983, the bloodiest period of the Central American nation's civil war. The trial against the former members of the so-called civil self-defence patrol, armed groups recruited by the army, began four months ago. 'The soldiers arrived late at night, threw me onto the ground and raped me,' Paulina Ixpata, a Maya Achi woman, said during the trial. Prosecutors presented more than 160 pieces of evidence against the men. 'That's how the whole night went,' Ixpata said, recounting how she was held for 25 days by the military patrol. Judge Maria Eugenia Castellanos sentenced the three for crimes against humanity in the form of sexual violence. 'The women recognised the perpetrators, they recognised the places where the events took place. They were victims of crimes against humanity,' she said. This is the second trial in the so-called Maya Achi case, and follows reports of sexual violence filed between 2011 and 2015 by 36 victims against former military personnel, military commissioners and civilian self-defence patrol members. The first trial, which took place in January 2022, saw five former patrol members sentenced to 30 years in prison. They remain incarcerated. In 2016, a Guatemalan court sentenced two former military officers for holding 15 women from the Q'eqchi community, who are also of Maya origin, as sex slaves at the Sepur Zarco military base, a landmark case that marked the first convictions in Guatemala of military officers for wartime rape. Both officers were sentenced to a combined 360 years in prison, where they remain incarcerated. The court also stipulated a reparations programme, whose progress remains limited despite advocacy by the 15 women who were at the trial, known as the 'Grandmothers of Sepur Zarco'.
4 days ago
Guatemala court convicts 3 ex-paramilitaries of war crimes for rape and gives them 40-year sentences
GUATEMALA CITY -- More than four decades after Guatemalan soldiers and paramilitaries raped Indigenous women during their efforts to crush an insurgency in the country's 36-year civil war, a court on Friday convicted three men of crimes against humanity in the case and sentenced them to 40 years in prison. Thirty-six women from the Maya Achi Indigenous group came forward in 2011 to seek justice for the abuses they suffered between 1981 and 1985. They came from Rabinal, a small town about 55 miles (88 kms) north of the capital. Six of them testified against the three men convicted Friday. As the all female three judge panel prepared to announce the verdict, several elderly women huddled around a young woman who translated the judges' words from Spanish to Achi. Judge María Eugenia Castellanos, president of the tribunal, said the women had been brave to come on repeated occasions to testify. 'They are crimes of solitude that stigmatize the woman. It is not easy to speak of them,' she said. Judge Marling Mayela González Arrivillaga said there was no doubt about the women's testimony. In 2022, five other paramilitaries – men from the area trained by soldiers to help root out insurgents – were convicted of raping women and sentenced to 30 years in prison. No soldiers have been tried for the acts. Guatemala's civil war pitted the army and police against leftist rebels. It ended with the signing of peace accords in 1996. Of the 36 women who originally came forward, seven have died. The youngest was 19 when she was attacked. Among the women who testified at this trial, was Pedrina Ixpatá. She is 63 now, but was 21 when she said she was assaulted. Félix Tum Ramírez, one of those convicted, had pointed her out to soldiers earlier in the day in the plaza. 'At 9 at night they came to take me (from the house) and took me to a big water tank. They pushed by head in the tank and when I was about to drown, let me out and asked me questions, but I said I didn't know anything,' Ixpatá said. Later, she was taken to a room on the local military base where she said soldiers raped her. 'I couldn't take it. My whole body hurt,' Ixtapá said. She got pregnant, aborted and wasn't able to have children. Tum Ramírez was convicted of raping two women and for signaling four women to be raped by others. The Associated Press typically does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Ixpatá has done. One of the accused, Pedro Sánchez, told the court Friday before the ruling was handed down that he was not involved. He was convicted of raping two women. 'I am innocent of what they are accusing us, I don't know any of these women,' Sánchez testified before the verdict. Simeón Enríquez Gómez, the third paramilitary, was also convicted of raping two of the women. Anthropologist Aura Cumes, who testified as a forensic expert during the trial, said women suffered differently in the war than men did. 'Sexual violence was a planned and deliberate method,' she said. 'It was effective for the army's goals insomuch as these brutal acts on women had the effect of causing mistrust, of destroying healthy relationships between women and men, of splitting the family unit and destroying the community social fabric.' Another woman testified in closed session that she had been washing clothes in the river when paramilitaries and soldiers forced her inside and told her to strip. She was raped first by paramilitaries and then by soldiers. Through an interpreter, she explained that they took her husband that day and she never saw him again. She was four months pregnant at the time. The Guatemalan Commission for Historical Clarification established by the United Nations to investigate human rights violations during the civil war, documented 1,465 cases of rape during the conflict. In 89% of the cases, the women were Indigenous Maya, according to the report.
