Massacres A massacre is an arbitrary mass execution, either selective or indiscriminate, of five or more people at the same time and in the same place. The victims are defenseless—either completely or relatively, in comparison to the victimizer—at the time of the attack. In Guatemala, massacres have not been limited just to the killings of individuals, but have also included large-scale, brutal attacks and murders. The majority involved grave human rights abuses, including torture, rape, cruel treatment, body mutilations, forced “disappearance” of victims, and destruction of individual, communal and religious material goods.
The U.N.-sponsored truth commission, the Historical Clarification Commission (Comisión de Esclarecimiento Histórico, CEH), defines three types of massacres: Selective Massacre: Victims are individually considered and selected for killing. |
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In this situation, victimizers often create “black lists” or use “pointers,” who point out the individuals that are believed to be involved in illicit or undesirable activities. Victimizers use previously obtained intelligence to select victims, and there is evidence of intentionality and planning of the operation. Indiscriminate Massacre of a Resident Population: There is no selection process for deciding which individuals will be victims. The massacre occurs against a residential population, where victims are usually going about their daily lives at the time of the attack. Indiscriminate Massacres of a Displaced Population: As in the previous category, there is no selection process for deciding which individuals will be victims, but in this case, those attacked are fleeing from previous acts of repression or violence. |
They are massacres of people who had left their places of residence, looking for refuge in mountains, ravines or forests, or who were fleeing to another country.
These types of military operations in Guatemala, perpetrated against groups of civilians, illustrate the clear intention to annihilate the population under attack. This type of persecution was carried out even in cases where people no longer had material goods with which to survive, much less to share with insurgent groups. Like in the previous category, massacres in Guatemala that fall into this category support evidence of acts of genocide.The CEH documented 669 massacres committed during the time of Guatemala´s internal armed conflict. The FAFG has recovered skeletal remains from a number of these massacres, including (to name a few) two cases from Santa Cruz del Quiché: case number 643, which took place in the village of Xesic, and case number 718, which took place in the village of Pamesebal. |
