*Garcia’s defense failed a challenge against the trial court
*Trial was suspended at the end of November after seven months of hearings
*Garcia was accused of designing counterinsurgency strategy against the Mayan people
*Guatebelga Collective has requested extradition of several former high-ranking military commanders
*Trial was suspended at the end of November after seven months of hearings
*Garcia was accused of designing counterinsurgency strategy against the Mayan people
*Guatebelga Collective has requested extradition of several former high-ranking military commanders
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NewsTranscript
00:00Now in Guatemala, the second trial in the Ixil genocide case faced the risk of going unpunished.
00:06The legal defense of the former military chief of operations, Manuel Benedicto Lucas Garcia,
00:11was able to annul the trial through trickery, according to the victim's families.
00:16Let's see more.
00:21Justice operators in Guatemala are institutionalizing impunity.
00:25Due to the annulment of the second trial for the Ixil genocide against retired military Manuel Benedicto Lucas Garcia,
00:31warns the Association for Justice and Reconciliation.
00:36Justice is not only co-opted, but there is already a de facto amnesty that is freeing the military
00:42with respect of the responsibility for the genocide they committed against our peoples.
00:46Lucas Garcia's defense feels a challenge against the trial court, alleging its impartiality.
00:56Despite having no legal grounds, the first appeal court accepted the appeal, according to a plaintiff lawyer.
01:02The court is removed from the trial, and a new court is appointed to hear the debate,
01:09which, let us say, leads to a situation of annulment of the debate stage and orders a repetition of the debate.
01:16The trial was suspended at the end of November of this year, after seven months of hearings
01:23in which witnesses, mainly women, had to relive the horrors experienced during the genocide in Guatemala.
01:29They did not come to lie, because they suffered in their own flesh.
01:35They saw it with their own eyes, all that happened in that region.
01:3992-year-old Manuel Benedicto Lucas Garcia is accused of designing the counterinsurgent strategy
01:46against the Mayan exiled people in Cuiche, in the Aries.
01:50Paradoxically, President Bernardo Levalo recently gave economic compensation to a group of military veterans of that era.
02:00It is sad to see that the paramilitaries are receiving compensation from the government.
02:06However, the victims of the armed conflict, who have been in the struggle for more than 40 years,
02:11have not been able to get compensation from the government.
02:16On the other hand, the Guatebelga collective has requested the extradition of several former high-ranking military commanders,
02:23including Lucas Garcia, in relation to another case for the murder of Belgian priests and missionaries
02:28during the 36 years of military repression.