Artigo Revisado por pares

Lynchings and the Democratization of Terror in Postwar Guatemala: Implications for Human Rights

2002; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 24; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/hrq.2002.0035

ISSN

1085-794X

Autores

Angelina Snodgrass Godoy,

Tópico(s)

Cuban History and Society

Resumo

On 24 January 1999, an estimated three thousand people gathered in the remote rural community of El Afán, Quiché, in the highlands of Guatemala, to witness the execution of four men. Outraged by the robbery of a local merchant, a group of area residents had apprehended the suspects and conducted an impromptu investigation, discovering weapons and cash. They then summoned the population to participate in a hastily convened "Popular Tribunal" to decide the accused men's fate. Holding police and human rights authorities at bay, the crowd voted to execute the men by stoning. The sentence was carried out at once, and the victims' corpses were cast into the nearby Chixoy River—after being sliced open and stuffed with rocks, to prevent them from floating to the surface for easy recovery by the authorities.

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