Church backs elderly victims of retired Guatemalan general

[Judi Lynn]

2. Survivors of Guatemala genocide recount horrors at trial

21 DAYS AGO

Lucas Garcia is charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and forced disappearance, which carry a possible sentence of more than 100 years in prison.



REUTERS
Survivors of the internal armed conflict attend a hearing at the Supreme Court of Justice, in Guatemala City. Photo: Reuters

Indigenous survivors of Guatemala's civil war recounted the horrors of massacres allegedly committed by the military at the genocide trial of an elderly retired general on Monday.

Juan Brito said his wife and four young daughters were shot dead and their bodies burned in a remote Mayan village in January 1982.

"Only a few bones and ashes remained," he told the judges on the second day of the trial of Benedicto Lucas Garcia, 91.

"The soldiers killed quite a few children... and pregnant women," added the 70-year-old, speaking the Mayan language and assisted by an interpreter.

Catarina Chel, 87, said that her two teenage children were murdered by soldiers when they were harvesting corn.

More:
https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/survivors-of-guatemala-genocide-recount-horrors-at-trial-17710716



Picture drawn by massacre survivor in Guatemala



Guatemalan villagers carrying remains of loved ones from a mass grave to be re-interred in private graves.