In 2000, the AJR filed a criminal complaint with the MP against the army high command for atrocities committed between 1978 and 1982 (during the government of Romeo Lucas García) and between 1982 and 1983 (during the government of Efraín Ríos Montt).
The Ixil region, located in the municipalities of Nebaj, Chajul, and Cotzal in the department of El Quiché, was one of the hardest hit during the IAC. The population was maliciously accused of collaborating with “communist” guerrilla groups. This excuse was used to commit a wide range of human rights violations against this population.
In 2012, after losing his immunity as a congressman, Ríos Montt was indicted on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. In 2013, High Risk Court A held an oral and public hearing and sentenced the dictator to 80 years in prison for these two crimes committed against the Ixil people. José Mauricio Rodríguez Sánchez, who was Ríos Montt’s chief of intelligence and was accused of the same crimes, was acquitted. However, ten days after this historic ruling was handed down, the Constitutional Court (CC) overturned the sentence and ordered a retrial, drawing harsh criticism from both national and international human rights organizations, who deemed the decision legally baseless. The trial resumed in 2015, but Ríos Montt died in 2018, before another guilty verdict could be handed down for the same two crimes.
The second trial for genocide against the Ixil people, committed during the government of Romeo Lucas García, began in 2021, when Judge Miguel Ángel Gálvez sent Benedicto Lucas García (brother of the late Romeo) and Manuel Callejas y Callejas to oral and public hearings for crimes against humanity, forced disappearance, and genocide. The third defendant, César Noguera Argueta, Chief of Military Operations (G3), died in October 2020 while awaiting the court’s decision to open the trial. Before the trial began, Callejas was declared mentally incompetent. He died in July 2025 without facing trial. Benedicto Lucas García, 93, was tried between April and November 2024. After 99 hearings, his defense recused High Risk Court A for alleged bias. An appeals court accepted the recusal and decided to cancel all of the trial proceedings, ordering that the proceedings be repeated. The CC confirmed this ruling. A new court will have to be formed.
Luis Enrique Mendoza García, director of the Operations Section (S-3) of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the de facto government of Ríos Montt (1982-1983), was not tried in the first trial in 2013 because he was a fugitive at the time. He was captured in 2019. In September 2025, another trial was set to begin against him for genocide and crimes against humanity, but the hearing was suspended twice and finally rescheduled for April 27, 2026.