US embassy cable - 04GUATEMALA1727

UNCLAS GUATEMALA 001727 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, GT 
SUBJECT: GROUNDBREAKING CONVICTION OF MILITARY OFFICIALS 
FOR XAMAN MASSACRE 
 
 
1.  Summary. Fourteen soldiers were sentenced to 40 years in 
prison on July 9 for the murder of 11 civilians during the 
1995 Xaman massacre.  The Xaman killings were the last of 
approximately 626 massacres perpetrated by the army during 
Guatemala's 36-year civil conflict, and occurred only 
fourteen months before the signing of the 1996 Peace Accords. 
 Following a five year legal tug-of-war, the court found the 
defendants, including one lieutenant and 13 enlisted troops, 
responsible for the extra-judicial murders of eleven 
individuals and the injury of 35 others.  The July 9 Xaman 
sentence is the harshest judgment ever made against military 
officials for crimes committed during the civil war. 
 
2.  Background:  On October 5, 1995, an army patrol of 24 
soldiers, led by second lieutenant Camilo Lacan Chaclan, 
entered the Xaman community in Chisec, Alta Verapaz.  The 
Xaman villagers were among the first group of refugees that 
had returned from years of hiding in Mexico, after being 
reassured by the GOG that the military would not enter the 
community.  Unlike earlier massacres, in which the Guatemalan 
army deliberately targeted civilians while waging a 
"scorched-earth" campaign, the Xaman killings resulted from 
poor planning and training of the individual patrol 
responsible.  After a brief standoff with a tense crowd of 
unarmed civilians, the patrol opened fire.  Altogether, the 
soldiers killed nine adults and two children and injured 35 
others. 
 
3.  The Legal Battle:  The Public Ministry in Coban, Alta 
Verapaz, pressured by private plaintiff Rigoberta Menchu 
Foundation, initiated proceedings in the Xaman massacre in 
1998.  After almost a year, a three-judge panel sentenced 
twelve soldiers (including Lieutenant Lacan Chaclan) to five 
years in prison for homicide on August 12, 1999.  The other 
thirteen patrol members received only four years on charges 
of complicity. 
 
4.  Though the 1999 convictions were the first ever against 
military officials for crimes committed during the civil 
conflict, the human rights community, including the Menchu 
Foundation, was openly critical of the short sentences.  The 
Public Ministry appealed the ruling, and in December of 1999, 
the Coban Appeals Court increased the sentences of ten 
individuals to twelve years and fully acquitted the other 15 
(including Lacan Chaclan).  The Supreme Court overturned the 
December 1999 Appeals sentence in April 2000 and ordered that 
the fifteen defendants who had been acquitted the year before 
be re-arrested and retried.  However, police only captured 
four (including Lacan Chaclan).  The other eleven remain 
at-large. 
 
5.  Comment:  The Coban Sentencing Tribunal tried fourteen of 
the soldiers involved in the Xaman massacre in 2004, 
convicting all of them on July 9 to 40 years in prison. 
Human rights leaders Frank LaRue and Helen Mack expressed 
surprise and pleasure to HROff at the landmark conviction. 
Though the sentence will certainly be appealed by the 
defendants, the Public Ministry's victory in the Xaman case 
could set a benchmark for other massacre cases languishing in 
the legal system, including Rio Negro and Dos Erres. 
WHARTON