Military Zone 21 – CREOMPAZ
On January 6, 2016, 14 former military officers were arrested on charges of forced disappearance and crimes against humanity based on evidence uncovered at the CREOMPAZ military center in Cobán, Alta Verapaz. Now a United Nations peacekeeper training base, CREOMPAZ (Regional Training Command for Peacekeeping Operations) operated as a detention and clandestine execution center during Guatemala’s Internal Armed Conflict, when it was known as Military Zone 21. Between 2012 and 2015, the Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala (FAFG) carried out 14 exhumations at CREOMPAZ and found 558 human remains in fourteen graves, representing the largest known case of forced disappearance in Latin America.
Spanning crimes committed from 1981 – 1988, the Military Zone 21 (CREOMPAZ) case sets the record in Guatemala, not only for the number of disappeared victims, but also for the time span over which the crimes were committed. Among the high-ranking individuals indicted is Manuel Benedicto Lucas García, who served as former Army Chief of Staff during his brother’s 1978-1982 military dictatorship, and who is currently imprisoned for his role in crimes against humanity committed against the Molina Theissen family. The trial is an important step in the legal trajectory seeking justice for crimes against humanity and represents more than 30 years of hard work by survivor organizations.
In-depth NISGUA reports
The same people who carried out genocide in Nebaj were the same who carried out genocide in Plan de Sánchez and throughout Baja and Alta Verapaz. It’s important that the high- ranking military command are tried for these crimes.
Latest from our blog
Comunidad internacional exige una investigación sobre el asesinato de activista del medioambiente Estuardo Quevedo
El 12 de julio de 2018, el activista guatemalteco Ángel Estuardo Quevedo, miembro de la Resistencia Pacífica en Casillas que exige el cierre definitivo de la mina de plata El Escobal, fue asesinado mientras [...]
International community calls for an investigation into the murder of Guatemalan Environmental Activist Estuardo Quevedo
On July 12, 2018, Guatemalan activist Ángel Estuardo Quevedo, a member of the Peaceful Resistance in Casillas which demands the permanent closure of the Escobal silver mine, was murdered while traveling in the municipality [...]
Solidarity Update: July 2018
News recap: Environmental activist Ángel Estuardo Quevedo killed in a wave of assassinations; Accompanier perspectives on violence at the U.S. border; New NISGUA report: Defending an ancestral decision-making process; Maya Achí women from Rabinal [...]
2018 Speaking Tour: How to Stop a Dam with Indigenous Resistance
In these times of intensifying repression and political upheaval, our social movements urgently need to share concrete lessons and strategies for organizing to defend land and life. The Latin American solidarity movement has a [...]
Reflection: Defending Truth and Memory Photo Exhibit in the US/Mexico Borderland Region
Former accompanier Kayla Autumn Myers writes about the photography exhibit, "Defending Truth and Memory." The exhibit traveled to Las Cruces, New Mexico, in February, 2018. Visit our blog for more information about the exhibit and [...]
Xinka People’s Parliament denounces the murder of environmental activist Ángel Estuardo Quevedo
On Thursday, July 12, 2018, Guatemalan activist Ángel Estuardo Quevedo, a member of the Peaceful Resistance in Casillas which demands the permanent closure of the Escobal silver mine, was murdered while traveling in the [...]