Louisa Reynolds /

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Judge Valdez was well aware of that and before delivering 
her verdict she said that she knew that this was a trial of 
huge historical significance. She read a summary of what 
had happened in Dos Erres, explaining how witnesses such 
as Manolo Vela Castañeda had clearly demonstrated how 
the same state that had encouraged impoverished peasants 
from Guatemala’s southern coast to migrate to Petén had 
used the might and force of the army to launch a brutal 
counterinsurgency operation against civilian populations 
that were purportedly aiding guerrilla groups, during which 
201 innocent men, women and children were slain in Dos 
Erres.

Arévalo Lacs and the two protected witnesses had confirmed 
that Pedro Pimentel Ríos was a member of the Kaibil troop 
and had quoted specific incidents that depicted him as a 
particularly cruel man, such as the murder of the young girl 
who was raped by the entire troop after the massacre.

When she finally read the sentence: 6,060 years, thirty for 
each of the 201 victims plus 30 for crimes against humanity 
– a charge that includes rape, torture and destruction of 
private property, among other crimes – the victims appeared 
to feel relief more than joy, as if they had finally been able to 
set aside the burden that had weighed on their shoulders for 
almost three decades.

Judge Valdez also ordered that the Land Fund 
(FONTIERRAS), a government bureau in charge of 
granting credit to peasant cooperatives for the purchase of 
land, should negotiate the purchase of the land where the 
village of Dos Erres once stood so that it can be distributed 
among the survivors. She also decreed that a documentary 
about the massacre made by the Presidential Commission