GUATEMALA
Fifty Lifetimes or More
A Guatemalan court sentenced Santos López Alonzo, 66, to a total of 5,160 years in prison for his involvement in the massacre of 171 people during the country’s 36-year civil war.
Totaling as much as 50 lifetimes, the massive sentence is symbolic – with López sentenced to 30 years for crimes against humanity and an additional 30 years for each of the 171 victims. Under Guatemalan law, he could serve a maximum of 50 years behind bars.
López was accused of participating in the killings as the member of an elite squad known as the Kaibiles, which murdered almost the entire population of the village of Dos Erres on Dec. 7, 1982, in an effort to find members of a guerrilla group that had ambushed a military convoy, the New York Times reported.
Failing to locate the guerrillas, the soldiers raped many of the village women, according to prosecutors, and then massacred the residents to cover up the rapes.
Overall, about 200,000 people were killed and an additional 45,000 disappeared during the conflict, which lasted from 1960 to 1996.
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