Guatemala Apologizes for 1982 Massacre
GUATEMALA CITY - Under orders from an international court, Guatemala apologized Monday for the government-directed massacre of 226 people in a highland village during the nation's bloody civil war.
Vice President Eduardo Stein traveled via helicopter to Plan de Sanchez, 95 miles north of the capital, Guatemala City, to formally accept government responsibility for the killings by soldiers on July 18, 1982.
The government was ordered to apologize by the Inter-American Human Rights Court, which also decreed that the state pay survivors and relatives $7.9 million in damages in a ruling last fall.
Stein said the army had "unleashed bloodshed and fire to wipe out an entire community."
Soldiers aided by members of civilian patrols stormed into Plan de Sanchez in search of leftist guerrillas who rebelled against the government during the 1960-1996 war. They used machetes and machine guns to kill inhabitants, and forced groups of men and women into homes which they set ablaze or pelted with grenades.
Additionally, a helicopter bombed the area, considered a stronghold of rebel activity. The war killed 200,000 people before a U.N.-brokered peace treaty was signed by both sides in December 1996.
The overwhelming majority of victims were Mayan civilians killed by soldiers or paramilitary forces in massacres meant to weed out support for guerrillas.
The Plan de Sanchez killings took place during the 18-month dictatorship of Efrain Rios Montt, whose government directed a scorched earth policy that international observers say led to some of the war's worst human rights violations.
Stein said he insisted the ceremony take place in Plan de Sanchez and called the court ruling historic.
"The people want moments that commemorate their victims," he said. "But, more than anything, they don't want what happened to keep being denied officially."
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