Louisa Reynolds /

Pz

P

52

Maybe the fact that the two trials took place simultaneously 
and in adjacent courtrooms was a mere coincidence, but it 
was hugely symbolic. 

Rodolfo Robles Espinoza analyzed the chain of command, 
the vertical line through which every member of the armed 
forces, from a foot soldier to a general, receives orders and 
must inform his superiors of the results achieved after every 
operation. Following that chain upwards, link by link, it is 
possible to establish who gave the orders.   

According to the Kaibiles who have testified as protected 
witnesses, the orders to carry out the “Chapeadora” operation 
in Dos Erres came directly from Lieutenant Roberto Aníbal 
Rivera Martínez, the same man who told the soldiers to 
remove the informant’s ribs because he fancied eating meat. 
He is currently wanted by the Guatemalan police for his 
participation in the massacre.

But who did Rivera Martínez receive orders from? In order 
to answer that question, Eduardo Arévalo Lacs, the director 
of the Kaibil School in 1982, who later served as Defense 
Minister under the Alfonso Portillo administration (2000-
2004), was called as a witness.

Lacs was the link that followed after Rivera Martínez and it 
is likely that he also would have faced prosecution had he not 
suffered an accident a month before the Dos Erres massacre, 
when the helicopter he was travelling in was shot by ORPA 
guerrillas. Establishing who took on Lacs’ responsibilities in 
his absence, and who that individual reported to until the 
buck stops with Ríos Montt, is the prosecution’s pending task.