The Dos Erres massacre of 6 December 1982 took place in Dos Erres, a small village in the municipality of La Libertad, in the northern Petén department of Guatemala. The name of the village, occasionally given as "Las Dos Erres", literally means "2R's", originating from two brothers called Ruano who received the original land grant.
On 6 December 1982, during the de facto presidency of General Efraín Ríos Montt, over 200 people – including women, the elderly, and children – were killed there by commandos working as government forces as a part of the government's scorched earth policy, in which up to 200,000 indigenous and Mayan people died.
In December 2011 President Álvaro Colom made a formal apology for the massacre on behalf of the Guatemalan government, and months after four soldiers were sentenced to 6,060 years prison for their part in the massacre. In March 2012, a fifth soldier, Pedro Pimentel Rios, was further sentenced to 6,060 years in prison for his participation in the events.
Read more about Dos Erres Massacre: Dos Erres Massacre, Judicial Proceedings
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