On September 27, 1981, Emma Guadalupe Molina Theissen was detained by the Guatemalan army and subjected to abuse, torture, and rape at the Manuel Lisandro Barillas Military Brigade in Quetzaltenango. On October 6, she managed to escape. Hours later, a group of soldiers arrived at her family’s home in Guatemala City and captured Marco Antonio, her younger brother, who was 14 years old at the time. The young man’s forced disappearance is regarded as an act of revenge perpetrated by the military against the family. Marco Antonio’s father, mother, and sisters searched for him at various state institutions, but their efforts were in vain; no one provided them with any information about him.
Despite the appeals they filed to locate Marco Antonio, the authorities did not take the necessary steps to address the family’s requests. In 2004, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued a ruling ordering the Guatemalan State to investigate, prosecute, and punish those responsible for Marco Antonio’s forced disappearance.
In the Guatemalan judicial system, the process began in 2016 when the accused military personnel were arrested. Before the court issued its ruling on May 22, 2018, Emma Molina Theissen stated in her closing statement, “I want to tell the defendants that I am putting the shame back on them, that I am putting the terror back on them. I cannot get rid of the pain, and I will never be able to get rid of the disgust. I leave you with your hatred because it takes a lot of hatred to do what you did to us. We deserve justice, I deserve justice, and I want the defendants to be left with everything else…”
Four of the five high-ranking military officers charged were found guilty of crimes against humanity, forced disappearance, and aggravated rape, and sentenced to between 33 and 58 years in prison. These included Benedicto Lucas García, Army Chief of Staff; Manuel Callejas y Callejas, Director of Military Intelligence; Luis Gordillo Martínez, Commander of the Quetzaltenango Military Zone; and Hugo Zaldaña Rojas, Intelligence Officer for the Quetzaltenango Military Zone.
To this day, the judgment is still not final, and thanks to the complicity of the Appeals Court in its rulings, three of the four convicted individuals are under house arrest, despite the illegality of such rulings, which contravene national and international law.
On July 24, 2025, Manuel Callejas y Callejas died without the whereabouts of Marco Antonio, who was detained and disappeared 44 years ago, ever being determined.