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
October Solidarity Update 🔥
This October we want to honor the current struggle of the People against colonialism, capitalism, imperialism. The legacy of today's resistances will be the freedom of the People of tomorrow! It is so powerful [...]
Memento on the Resistance in Rescuing Democracy in Huehuetenango
United as Organized Civil Society 1- We, the Mam people, upon finding out about the crimes committed by the Guatemalan government, have organized as civil society to defend and rescue an endangered Democracy, the [...]
Descansa en poder Don Marcial 🌻
Crédito de fotografía: Rode Díaz. www.rodediaz.com. 2013 “Si ya llega el momento que desaparezco de este mundo, yo no quiero que me construyan un panteón, porque la Madre Tierra me dió todo [...]
Clark Taylor, presente!
Crédito de fotografía: Foto cortesía del Hermanamiento de Needham con Guatemala Clark Taylor (y su difunta esposa Kay) fueron campeones e incondicionales de la Comunidad de Patrocinio de Needham (que ellos fundaron). [...]
Clark Taylor, presente!
Photo courtesy of Needham Guatemala Partnership Clark Taylor (and his late wife Kay) were champions and stalwarts of the Needham Sponsoring Community (which they founded). Clark's volunteer field work with anthropologist Beatriz [...]
Rest in power Don Marcial 🌻
Photo by: Rode Díaz. 2013 "When the moment comes that I disappear from this world, I do not want a pantheon to be built for me, because Mother Earth gave me everything I [...]