The Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR) filed an appeal this Wednesday against the house arrest granted to the former Chief of Staff of the Guatemalan Army, Manuel Benedicto Lucas García, who is being prosecuted for crimes against humanity and genocide against the Ixil Maya people.

RELATED:

Guatemala Reports 42 Aftershocks After 7.4 Quake

The AJR, the plaintiff in the case concerning the genocide against the Ixil Maya people, reported that the appeal was filed with the High-Risk Court “B”. This legal action responds to the ruling issued on July 15, the date on which the 91-year-old former military officer was granted house arrest.

Both the Prosecutor’s Office and the victims’ association argue that the crimes of genocide are imprescriptible and, therefore, do not allow for prison benefits as established by national and international law. Furthermore, they believe that the measures granted by the court represent a setback in access to justice for the victims, in a criminal process that is currently suspended due to an appeal filed by the defendant’s legal team.

The text reads, “Guatemala’s Public Prosecutor’s Office and victims appeal release of former military officer accused of genocide Former Army Chief of Staff Manuel Benedicto Lucas García is accused of the massacre of more than 1,200 Ixil Mayan indigenous people.”

Nery Rodenas, director of the Human Rights Office of the Archdiocese of Guatemala (ODHAG), the organization advising the plaintiff, emphatically rejected equating these crimes with common offenses.

“We cannot consider that a crime of genocide can be equated with manslaughter. Behind the crimes committed there was planning, execution, and obstruction, given that many years passed without access to justice,” Rodenas stated.

Lucas García is accused of the massacre of more than 1,200 Ixil Maya people, a community settled in the remote mountains of northwestern Guatemala. He is also charged with sexual violence and enforced disappearance in more than 1,500 cases, atrocities committed between 1981 and 1982, during the height of the internal armed conflict (1960-1996).

Due to the magnitude of these crimes, the Prosecutor’s Office requested a 2,860-year prison sentence for Lucas García in November 2024. The former military chief, who remains hospitalized due to his health condition and because he is serving other sentences for human rights violations, is being investigated for his direct role in the atrocities perpetrated during the presidency of his brother, Fernando Romeo Lucas García (1978-1982).

The internal armed conflict in Guatemala left a tragic toll of more than 200,000 dead and 45,000 missing. The majority of the victims were Indigenous, while most of the documented atrocities were committed by the state armed forces.

IN THIS ARTICLE