GUATEMALA
A Cry for Justice
Indigenous survivors of war crimes committed during Guatemala’s 36-year civil war filed an injunction Wednesday seeking to block an amnesty bill that would allow the soldiers who raped them – as well as other war criminals — to go free.
Thirty-six women of the Maya Achi group filed the injunction to try to prevent the amnesty bill from moving forward and stopping the ongoing trial against six men accused of raping them in a military base in the early 1980s, Al Jazeera reported. If the amnesty bill passes, their case is among many that will be closed.
Initially proposed in 2017, the bill passed its first reading and vote last month, the news channel said. A second of three readings was on the agenda for the Wednesday session of Congress, but it was bumped from the schedule and a new date has not yet been announced.
The bill would offer a blanket amnesty to more than 30 men convicted of war crimes, as well as those in pre-trial detention, and put a stop to current and future cases.
Around 200,000 people were killed and another 40,000 were disappeared during the conflict between the army and leftist guerillas. More than 80 percent of those killed were indigenous Mayan civilians.
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