Index

The Committee to deposit a petition in Ottawa

Justice for the Victims of Ríos Montt

General Efraín Ríos Montt seized power in Guatemala in 1982 following a coup d'État. During his one and a half year reign an estimated 400 massacres were carried out and approximately 20,000 people were violently killed.

The Committee Against Impunity in Guatemala (Montreal) along with Mateo Pablo, a massacre survivor, urge Canada to hear the victims of Ríos Montt. To this end, a petition appealing to the federal government to modify Canada's legislation regarding Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes and the Canadian Criminal Code will be presented in Ottawa on Tuesday, the 9th of March.

A press conference will take place on Parliament Hill during which Svend Robinson, deputy of the New Democratic Party of Canada, will receive the petition from Mateo Pablo and representatives of the Committee Against Impunity in Guatemala. Fernando Lopez and Christina Laur from the Guatemalan NGO, The Center for Human Rights Legal Action (CALDH) will also be present.

This petition was signed by thousands of Canadian citizens from across the country, as well as by several international cooperation and human rights organizations, trade unions, and aboriginal and student groups. It denounces the impunity of the authors of the acts of violence which occurred in Guatemala during its' 36 year long civil war. It urges Canada to take action so that justice may be delivered.

From 1960 to 1996, Guatemala endured a civil war which resulted in approximately 200,000 deaths and disappearances, the majority of whom were Indigenous Mayans. Despite the signing of the 1996 Peace Accords which promised to secure the establishment of a just State of Law that would bring justice to the victims of gross human rights violations, Guatemala maintains a state of quasi total impunity.

The massacre of the Mayan community of Petanac, which Mateo Pablo survived, took place on the 14th of July, 1982. On this day Guatemalan army troops assassinated 78 individuals - men, women and children. Mateo Pablo lost his wife and his two children, one of whom was a new-born baby, along with his father, grandparents, mother-in-law, uncles, aunts and nephews.

Contact : Committee Against Impunity in Guatemala
Nathalie Brière, (514) 495-3131
or