October 4, 2012 is etched in the history of the K’iche’ People of Totonicapán. On that day a peaceful demonstration took place which ended in a massacre that claimed the lives of seven men and left 34 people injured. These violent events took place when the army intervened to dissolve the protest. The widows, survivors and the entire population of Totonicapán, represented by the 48 Cantones, undertook a legal struggle to obtain justice for the flagrant violation of their right to life and right to free assembly. It took 4,164 days, almost 12 years, for the case to come to trial. Nine soldiers faced trial for the crimes of extrajudicial execution and attempted extrajudicial execution, but in the end none were sentenced for these crimes. The damages to the K’iche’ People were ignored.
The Incidents
On October 4, 2012, the 48 Cantons of Totonicapán had convened thousands of people for a peaceful demonstrating in the place known as “The Alaskan Summit”, located at km 169 of the Inter-American highway between Sololá and Totonicapán. The communities were protesting against the high cost of electricity, changes to the teacher training career, and against a constitutional reform pushed forward by the government of Otto Perez Molina, which referred to the statute regarding the existence of indigenous communities. The 48 Cantons had previously presented documents to the electric energy company and to the President of the Republic to expressing their discontent about these issues. The response was to propose dialogue and negotiation roundtables which produced no results. The communities therefore decided to publicly express their discontent.
The reaction to the demonstration was to send in the army to repress it, which triggered a tragic episode of violence that shocked the whole of Guatemala. Armed soldiers arrived on the scene and fired at the demonstrators, causing seven deaths and wounding 34 people. Those killed were Santos Hernández Menchú, José Eusebio Puac Baquiax, Jesús Baltazar Caxaj Puac, Arturo Félix Sapón Yax, Jesús Francisco Puac Ordóñez, Rafael Nicolás Batz and Lorenzo Isidro Vásquez.
The Alaskan Summit massacre, as it later became known, was the first committed by the army in Guatemala since the end of the Internal Armed Conflict and the signing of the Peace Accords in 1996. The reaction to the repression marked a turning point in the struggle for human rights in Guatemala and sparked a long legal battle for justice for the victims and their families.
The trial at the High Risk Court B for Criminal Sentencing for Drug Trafficking and Environmental Crimes began in June 2023. Nine members of the military were tried for extrajudicial execution and attempted extrajudicial execution. The Board of Directors of Community Mayors from the 48 Cantons, the widows, wounded and survivors of the massacre were plaintiffs in this process.
The ruling
On February 28, 2024, after nine months of hearings, the High Risk Court B, composed by its president María Eugenia Castellanos Cruz and the judges Elia Raquel Perdomo Ruano and Marling Mayela González Arrivillaga, delivered their ruling. Two of the accused, Juan Chiroy, colonel in charge of the military contingent, and Manuel Lima, were acquitted. Abraham Gua was convicted of shooting with a firearm and Edin Adolfo Agustín, Ana Rosa Cervantes, Dimas García, Marcos Suc, Felipe Chuc and Abner Cruz, were convicted for causing injury during a quarrel. Agustín was also convicted of attempted manslaughter. The sentences imposed ranged from two to seven years in prison. The main argument for changing the crimes in the ruling was that the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) had not been able to prove that the defendants had committed extrajudicial execution. Edgar de León, lawyer for the prosecution, explained that changing the crime to injury during a quarrel reduces the act of social demonstration to a street brawl. “A brawl occurs in a very improvised situation, in a street where a conflict arises between one group and another. But this was a demonstration, they [the military] came to intimidate.” According to de León, to reduce a peaceful demonstration to a brawl has political implications.
The 48 Cantons of Totonicapán held a press conference following the ruling, in which their president, Edín Zapeta, stated that they regretted the poor work done by the MP and that the lives of the victims who died had not been valued, nor had the widows been taken into account. They also regretted that the frustrated dreams of the wounded, the families of the victims, as well as those of their sons and daughters, had not been taken into account. They publicly denounced and rejected the partiality of the judges, for a racist ruling which spoke of the truncated lives of the soldiers throughout, but not of the victims of their actions. For the population of Totonicapán, the ruling has evidenced the deficiency of the judicial system.
From the legal perspectice, the lawyer Lucía Xiloj highlighted the discrepancy between the opinions of the judges: while one of them considered that there had not been a proportionate use of force, the other judge claimed the opposite. She also stated that there had been a deficient analysis of the criminal offense of extrajudicial execution, because, as was pointed out in the process, members of the army acted arbitrarily and with an excessive use of force.
Historically, Totonicapán has defended its collective and individual rights and the strength and energy of these struggles have managed to link with those of society in general. Totonicapán has sprouted and produced horizons of care for life and the common good that reach the whole society. For this reason, I believe that the outcome of this judicial process is not only relevant to those who are from Totonicapán, it is a problem for all the indigenous peoples, it is a problem for the whole country.
Gladys Tzul Tzul, K’iche’ sociologist of Totonicapán
The struggle of the victims and survivors: justice, reparation and non-repetition*
The subsequent hearing for dignified reparations took place on March 5, where those representing the victims and their families submitted their requests for compensation to the seven people convicted. José Santos Sapón, representing the 48 Cantones, stated that the ruling had left them with a bitter taste, but highlighted the fact that the convictions opened the door to the process of dignified reparations. The objective of the reparations is to focus on trying to provide restitution for the material and non-material damages, and to respond to the emotional impacts at the community level. Mention was made of one of the psychological expert reports presented during the hearings, which detailed the prolonged lack of justice, the psychosocial damage to the population, as well as the lack of confidence in the justice system and the feeling of abandonment by the State of Guatemala. It was pointed out that all the people affected by the massacre suffered a rupture in their life project and therefore they urged the court to grant the requested measures of dignified reparation.
The legal representatives of the widows and survivors, Lucía Xiloj and Jovita Tzul, requested reparations and satisfaction measures based on the psychological evaluations presented, and requested that these be transformative and contain guarantees of non-repetition and not focused solely on economic aspects. The following measures were requested:
- Once the ruling is final it should be published in the Official Gazette, on the web pages of the judicial body of the MP and the National Civil Police (PNC).
- As the events of October 4, 2012 were committed by agents of the State, thereby violating the right to free assembly, the Ministry of Defense should apologize publicly.
- The Ministry of Education should include the date of October 4, 2012 in the basic primary school curriculum, so that these events remain in the historical memory of the country.
- The Government Executive should declare October 4 as the Day of the Victims of the Alaska Summit Massacre and hold an annual commemoration.
- The Ministry of Culture and Sports should build a monument in the park of San Miguel, in the capital of Totonicapán, and in other communities, to remember the victims and survivors.
- The State must ensure that similar events do not happen again and that a governmental agreement be created to regulate the presence of the army in peaceful assemblies and demonstrations, especially those related to indigenous communities, and that the PNC be present in these spaces.
For many of the affected families, a large part of their life and development project was focused on their sons and daughters being able to achieve an intermediate level of teacher education. This would have allowed them to access employment in their communities, to support themselves economically and to support their families. This income would also have given them the opportunity to continue their studies and thus gain access to university. In a region where the lack of opportunities forces many people to migrate to the United States, this training would have opened up better employment opportunities that would have mitigated such migration. For this reason, they also requested educational scholarships as a reparation measure.
In an interview on our virtual program ACÉRCATE, Lucía Xiloj explained the affect of this massacre on the lives of the widows and the communities, including economic, psychological, physical, social and community impacts. The physical impacts are very evident, as the people who survived the massacre came to testify in wheelchairs because they are missing a leg, or have experienced other permanent damage to their bodies. For this reason, each survivor requested a measure relating to the injury they suffered in their bodies, as well as access to psychological support.
Xiloj explained how these physical impacts suffered by those who survived truncated their life projects, as they limited their ability to continue exercising their professions as weavers, bakers, carpenters, etc. This resulted in a significant economic impact, not only because of the difficulties in continuing to work, but also because of the medical expenses derived from these damages. This is the case of García Taló and his family, for whom that October 4 radically changed their lives: “I am a weaver and trader, all that is gone. Everything fell apart because I needed money for treatment and operations. I have suffered because I can no longer do my work.” Now his wife is the one who works and fetches firewood.
Children of the deceased and injured were orphaned, widows went into debt, changed their role within the family and adapted to the new situation. Some of the injured people will have lifelong health problems. “The families had their life plans cut short,” said one of the psychiatrists about the psychological impacts experienced by those who survived.
The continuation of the hearing for dignified reparations took place on March 20 and a ruling was made. The court considered many of the measures requested to be overstated, due to the less serious nature of the crimes. As a result, the victims and relatives of the victims are not satisfied with neither the sentence nor the reparation measures ordered and have appealed the resolution. The struggle for justice continues.
* Sources used for this section: #CasoCumbredeAlaska Audiencia de Reparación Digna, Pagina Facebook de Verdad y Justicia, 5.03.2024; ACÉRCATE de febrero de 2024 sobre el Caso de la Masacre de la Cumbre de Alaska, Totonicapán, PBI Guatemala, 22.02.2024; Coyoy, M., Op. Cit.; Tzul, G., Op. Cit.
