Press

Original Guatemalan army records on a scorched-earth campaign known as “Operation Sofia,” presented as evidence in a human rights case in Spain, have bolstered hopes for justice among the relatives of victims of Guatemala’s 36-year civil war in which more than 200,000 people were killed.

Nearly 20 years after the Salvadoran Army murdered six Jesuit priests in one of the most notorious incidents of the country’s civil war, a criminal complaint filed in the Spanish High Court has revived hopes that those behind the slaughter could face trial.

CJA International Attorney Almudena Bernabeu and U.C Hastings College of the Law Professor Naomi Roht-Arriaza summarize the history of the case and the historic 2008 testimony of Mayan genocide survivors in Madrid.

As dusk approached and a light rain fell over Guatemala’s Supreme Court plaza, Nobel Peace Prize recipient Rigoberta Menchú sought to buoy the spirits of the human rights activists, local clergy and Mayan women gathered there. “The Supreme Court hasn’t given the green light on judging Ríos Montt yet,” she said of the longstanding quest to bring the former dictator to trial. “But don’t lose hope; we’ll fight the rest of our lives to see there’s full justice for the genocide in Guatemala.”