Excavations at the site will be led by the Foundation for Criminal Anthropology of Guatemala and the Office of the Public Prosecutor for Human Rights – as part of efforts to bring justice to hundreds of thousands of victims of the armed conflict that lasted from 1960 to 1996.
The massacre, one of many that targeted Mayan communities during the civil war, took place on May 21, 1988 in the remote indigenous community of Cheol. Eyewitnesses say that members of the armed forces arrested hundreds of residents and took them to the military barracks, where they separated the children from their parents, according to Reuters.
According to Arnulfo Oxlag, a survivor of the massacre, 116 children between the ages of two and 15 were tortured and dumped into a well that was then inside the facility, where they drowned.
“These children were thrown into that well with the worst acts of violence and hatred just because they are Mayans,” he told a news conference on Monday.
There is no official record of the number of casualties and there is no clarity about the motives behind the massacre. The Guatemalan army was accused of waging a genocidal campaign against the indigenous population during the conflict.
A Guatemalan army spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
Hector Reyes, a famous human rights lawyer who works with family members of war victims, said that once the bodies were recovered and identified, he would seek to bring the perpetrators to justice.
So far, he said, no one has been arrested in connection with the killings.
HF