Creative Commons
Creative Commons
WOLA expert, Jo-Marie Burt, available for comment and analysis
Guatemala City, November 13, 2024 – After more than seven months of public hearings, the trial against the former chief of staff the Guatemalan Army, Manuel Benedicto Lucas García, is likely to conclude this week. Lucas García is accused of responsibility in the genocide of Maya Ixil indigenous people during the government of his brother, Fernando Romeo Lucas García (1978-1982). Lucas García faces charges of orchestrating counter-insurgency operations that led to massacres, forced displacement, sexual violence and other grave crimes against the Maya Ixil population.
According to prosecutors, Lucas García is responsible for planning and carrying out the Guatemalan army’s counter-insurgency strategy in the Ixil region, after having determined that the area was “enemy territory”. As army chief of staff, Lucas García is accused of designing and implementing policies that sought to eliminate the civilian population.
Over 90 sessions, the court has heard from 80 direct victims, 55 expert witnesses, and reviewed official documents and forensic evidence. Witnesses testified about army actions in their communities and in nearby fincas, or large landed estates, including mass killings, gang rapes, enforced disappearance, and forced displacement.
Defense attorneys have repeatedly objected to expert witnesses and recused the court in an attempt to stop or delay the trial. So far, these efforts have not prevailed. However, Attorney General Consuelo Porras—who has twice been sanctioned by the U.S. Government—summarily fired the lead prosecutor in the case, Erick de León, just days before the trial’s conclusion, prompting concerns about the outcome.
Lucas García denies the charges against him, calling them “a total farce.” He claims he fulfilled his duty as commander in chief of the armed forces to prevent a guerrilla takeover and had protected the indigenous population.
Guatemalan courts have twice determined that the Guatemalan army carried out a state policy of genocide during the successor government to Lucas García, led by Efraín Ríos Montt. Ríos Montt was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity against the Maya Ixil in 2013 and sentenced to 80 years. In a highly controversial ruling, Guatemala’s Constitutional Court vacated the conviction. Ríos Montt died in April 2018 in the midst of his retrial. In a 2018 ruling, a court unanimously found that the Guatemalan army committed genocide against the Maya Ixil population but acquitted the sole defendant of any wrongdoing. The verdict in this case will once again put to the test the ability of the Guatemalan justice system to provide justice to victims of mass atrocities.
WOLA Senior Fellow Jo-Marie Burt, an international expert on transitional justice and long-time observer of war crimes trials in Guatemala, will be in the country to monitor the proceedings, with the support of Truth and Justice in Guatemala, an organization she co-directs with Guatemalan human rights defender Paulo Estrada.
For more information and updates on the trial, please contact:
Jo-Marie Burt: jmburt.wola@gmail.com or via WhatsApp at +1 (703) 946-9714
WOLA Press Office: press@wola.org
Follow the trial on the social media of Verdad y Justicia en Guatemala: @VerdadJusticiaG
Background Information
According to the report Guatemala Nunca Más of the Catholic Church, between 1978 and 1982, the military high command deployed a military counter-offensive through operations that left at least 12,400 victims in the municipalities of Santa María Nebaj, San Gaspar Chajul and San Juan Cotzal located in the department of El Quiche.
On November 25, 2019, the Public Prosecutor’s Office charged three members of the General Staff of the Army of command responsibility for the crimes of genocide, forced disappearance and crimes against humanity committed in the context of these operations, including Lucas García, the chief of military intelligence, Manuel Callejas y Callejas, and the head of military operations, César Octavio Noguera Argueta.
Judge Miguel Ángel Gálvez, who at the time presided over High Risk Court “B,” oversaw the pretrial phase of the case. Evidentiary phase hearings began in March 2020. In November 2020, Noguera Argueta died and charges against him were dropped. In August 2021, the judge ruled that there was sufficient evidence to bring Lucas García and Callejas y Callejas to trial. After an intense campaign of intimidation and persecution related to this other criminal cases, Judge Gálvez resigned on November 15, 2022, and is living in exile. In January 2024, Callejas y Callejas was separated from the case due to health reasons. The trial against Lucas García began in April 2024, after numerous defense moves designed to delay and obstruct the proceedings.
The prosecution includes the Attorney General’s Office, the Justice and Reconciliation Association (AJR), and the Human Rights Office of the Archbishopric of Guatemala (ODHAG). Some 500 pieces of evidence were presented, including the testimonies of 80 surviving witnesses, including 11 women survivors of sexual violence, 55 expert reports, including 42 from forensic anthropologists, and dozens of military, historical and newspaper documents to support the charges outlined in this case.
As WOLA has noted, over the past decade, networks made up of members of Guatemala’s political and military elite, criminal groups, and private sector have mobilized to push back against anti-impunity efforts, undermining the ability of victims of grave human rights violations to access justice, truth and reparations. The outcome of this trial will be a crucial test of the justice system in Guatemala and its ability to provide accountability for the survivors of genocide.
For additional background information on the trial, please refer to the following articles:
