#creompaz

From the desk of Jo-Marie Burt, writing for the International Justice Monitor:

It is important to note that domestic judicial proceedings are underway in some of the 14 cases reviewed by the Inter-American Court. Currently, eight high-ranking military officers (out of 14 arrested in January 2016) are awaiting trial for the Plan de Sánchez massacre and several other cases of enforced disappearance in the CREOMPAZ case. Among these are former head of the high command of the Guatemalan army, Benedicto Lucas García. Five members of the military high command are also awaiting trial in the Molina Theissen case.

No trial date has yet been set in either case, however, and there have been significant delays in both proceedings. Moreover, arrest warrants are still outstanding for nine additional retired military officials who were not apprehended in the CREOMPAZ case. Some of the officials are still powerful figures in Guatemala. Two of them, retired generals Luis René Mendoza Palomo and Angel Aníbal Guevara Rodríguez, are former defense ministers. A third is Edgar Justino Ovalle, who was elected to Congress in 2015 for the ruling National Convergence Front (FCN) and is a close advisor to President Morales. Shortly before Ovalle was impeached in relation to the CREOMPAZ case, he disappeared.