After Lengthy Court Battle, Five Ex-Paramilitary Soldiers Convicted for Sexualized Violence against Indigenous Women in Guatemala

GUATEMALA CITY — In late January, in a landmark case for justice in Guatemala, five former paramilitary soldiers were convicted by a special tribunal of crimes against humanity for sexualized violence committed against five indigenous Maya Achí women in the early ’80s, during the country’s 36-year internal armed conflict between 1960 and 1996. The men were sentenced to 30 years each in prison by three judges — Yassmin Barrios, Patricia Bustamente, and Gervi Sical — all of whom are prominent for their work on previous high-impact human rights cases in the country.

The investigation first began in 2011 by the Popular Human Rights Law Firm of Rabinal (Asociación Bufete Jurídico Popular de Rabinal, or ABJP) after 36 Maya Achí women brought charges against members of the Guatemalan military and the Civil Self-Defense Patrols (Patrullas de Auto-Defensa Civil, or PAC) — a state-organized paramilitary group — who had raped them during the war. Among those members were Francisco Cuxum Alvarado, Gabriel Cuxum Alvarado, Damián Cuxum Alvarado, Benvenuto Ruiz Aquino, and Bernardo Ruiz Aquino.

According to the UN Report of the Commission for Historical Clarification, published in 1999, more than 200,000 people were assassinated under the guise of counterinsurgency operations by the state. The commission concluded that 83 percent of the victims of those operations were indigenous and that the Guatemalan military and paramilitary forces were responsible for at least 93 percent of the acts of violence.

Sexual violence was widespread across the country, especially targeting indigenous women. A 2013 verdict by the same tribunal, High Risk Court ‘A’, categorized the violence as acts of genocide, citing systematic sexualized violence as one of the key factors to confirm that the military not only targeted insurgents as claimed by their defense but also intended to eliminate indigenous communities through brutal acts of physical and psychological violence.

As a result of the “scorched earth” military campaign carried out at the height of the violence (between 1981 and 1983), entire communities were massacred, and up to 1.5 million people were forcibly displaced from their homes, resulting in the destruction of the social fabric of indigenous communities and the catastrophic loss of indigenous languages, culture and traditions.

Analysis presented by the tribunal highlighted how sexualized violence against Achí women was deployed by the military as part of a calculated strategy to eradicate “an internal enemy.”

“Using sexual violence, they sought to destroy the Maya Achí people through the bodies of Achí women,” the verdict read. “They were used as ‘spoils of war’ and as a tool of torture.”

During last month’s public hearings, the women who gave their testimonies described miscarriages and forced pregnancies, severe emotional harm, and stigmatization as a result of the abuse. They also recounted the murders and forced disappearances of family members, as well as the burning of homes during the military’s assaults on their villages.

Judge Sical read the historic verdict to a small crowd of lawyers, witnesses, journalists, and human rights observers gathered inside the courtroom in the Supreme Court building in the capital. The accused attended the hearing virtually from a detention center a few blocks away.

“Upon hearing the survivors’ statements, this tribunal has determined that the Achí women suffered individual, collective, and systematic sexual violence and domestic slavery,” the verdict read. “We recognize the courage and respect that the Achí women deserve for their bravery and perseverance in bringing this case forward, breaking the silence regarding the acts to which they were subjected, and that crimes of this nature should never be repeated again.”

Outside the courthouse, hundreds of supporters awaited the verdict, listening to a Facebook Live transmission of the proceedings on a loudspeaker, set up by the nonprofit organization Verdad y Justicia en Guatemala. Dozens had written messages of encouragement for the survivors in chalk on the sidewalk and painted banners of support. A group of Maya Achí survivors also sat on the steps of the courthouse watching the hearing on their phones.

When Judge Sical’s voice announced the men’s sentence, the crowd erupted in applause, cries, tears and hugs. Supporters gathered around an offering of flowers, pine needles, candles, and incense placed there earlier that morning as part of a Mayan ceremony to mark the historic day.

The long road to justice

In 2011, the ABJP presented its first legal action, representing 11 of the survivors. By 2014, 25 more survivors had come forward, and the ABJP filed a second legal action representing all 36 survivors, who implicated not only PAC members but also high-ranking military officials who oversaw the operations of the military base at Xococ, where much of the violence detailed in the case occurred. Of the 36 women, only five could identify their attackers by name because they were PAC members from their community; the other 31 women were taken to the military base and raped by soldiers whom they could not identify because they were not from the area.

The high-ranking military officials were then charged for the abuse experienced by the 31 women unable to identify their aggressors by name.

In 2016, a groundbreaking verdict condemned two military officials to over 100 years each in prison for the sexual slavery of 15 Maya Q’eqchi’ women from the community of Sepur Zarco. The Sepur Zarco case — the first to confront the aftermath of widespread sexualized violence committed during Guatemala’s brutal internal armed conflict — set an important legal precedent and was welcome encouragement for the 36 Achí women, who’d been fighting their own case for several years.

In 2018, the public prosecutor’s office gave the ABJP an ultimatum: they could continue working on the case of all 36 women — which implicated the high-ranking military officials and would likely continue to stall, possibly never moving forward — or, they could continue forward with the case of the five women who were able to name their attackers. The ABJP accepted the proposal to move forward with the case of the five women while planning to open a new legal action for the remaining 31.

By May of that year, the case began to move forward, and arrest warrants were issued against 10 of the accused. Seven of the accused were captured and charged with crimes against humanity for sexualized violence against the Maya Achí women, while the remaining three were unable to be found. It was a hopeful moment for survivors who had been waiting almost 40 years for justice, but in a judicial system co-opted by corruption and impunity, even high-impact cases encounter a long and arduous path toward justice.

In 2019, despite strong evidence presented by the prosecution, Judge Claudette Dominguez dismissed the charges against three of the six ex-paramilitary soldiers and provisionally released the remaining three. One of the accused had died in custody due to health complications, and three others of the original 10 remained at large.

The ABJP released a statement detailing the actions of the judge, which they considered to be a “clear violation of the rights of sexual violence victims because the declarations of the women were given no weight.” They also expressed their concern that, by releasing the accused, the women’s lives were at risk. They promised to appeal the “arbitrary resolution,” and assured that they would succeed in recusing Judge Domínguez from the case, who they believed had demonstrated her blatant partiality in favor of the military.

After several months of waiting for an appeals court to resolve the status of the Maya Achí sexualized violence case, on September 9, 2019, the appeals court resolved that Judge Domínguez could not continue to preside over the women’s due to indirect interest, ordering that the case be transferred to another court.

In late January 2020, Francisco Cuxum Alvarado, one of the accused in the case who had absconded in the United States, was deported to Guatemala to confront allegations of grave human rights violations, including sexualized violence against the Maya Achí women. Cuxum Alvarado was immediately detained by the Guatemalan Public Prosecutor’s Office, triggering a new phase in the legal process.

The case was then reopened presided over by Judge Galvez, of the High Risk Court ‘B’, who determined that there was enough evidence to detain five of the accused, setting the date of the public trial for January 2022.

In her closing arguments, Attorney Lucía Xiloj reminded the tribunal that “sexual violence is a war crime and a crime against humanity,” and that such crimes have no statute of limitations.

At long last, as the public trial came to a close on January 24, and the jubilant crowd gathered outside the courthouse, one survivor reminded supporters that the battle was hard-fought. “We didn’t just start now,” she said. “We’ve been fighting for justice for 40 years. We have suffered.”

While this phase of the trial has finally reached a victorious conclusion for the Achí women, lawyers at ABJP have pledged to continue fighting for justice for the remaining 31 survivors, and to hold military officials responsible for their role overseeing the crimes.