Colonel Byron Lima Estrada, center, shows a group of international journalists a cache of weapons recently found by the military in a Ejército Guerrillero de los Pobres, Guerrilla Army of the Poor, EGP, safe house at the regional military garrison in Santa Cruz del Quiché, Guatemala, February 1, 1982. Col. Lima Estrada was commander of the Quiché department army garrison. He received U.S. Army counterintelligence training at Fort Benning, Georgia, the School of the Americas, and instruction from the U.S. Army Mobile Training Team (MTT) and the U.S. Military Assistance Program (MAP). Following his term as intelligence chief, Lima Estrada served as senior officer in key operational units during the Guatemalan Armed Forces' "scorched earth" campaigns in the 1980s. Lima Estrada was convicted in 2001 for the 1998 murder of Catholic Bishop Juan José Gerardi Conedera, which is considered one of the most infamous crimes of Guatemala's post-war history.
General Benedicto Lucas García speaks on a military radio at the regional army base in Santa Cruz del Quiché, Guatemala, January 20, 1982. President Romeo Lucas García appointed his brother Benedicto Lucas García as chief of the General Staff of the Guatemalan Army in August of 1981 in response to the growing threat of insurgency to the military regime. Benedicto Lucas García was trained in irregular warfare and counterinsurgency at the controversial School of the Americas, SOA, and executed the military's scorched earth campaigns against the civilian Maya population. He was sentenced along with four other Guatemalan ex-officials on May 23, 2018 to 58 years in prison for crimes against humanity and aggravated sexual assault against Emma Guadalupe Molina Theissen and for the forced disappearance of her 14 year-old brother, Marco Antonio Molina Theissen, in 1981. Lucas García is currently on trial in Guatemala in a separate case of genocide, crimes against humanity, and forced disappearance of the Maya Ixil population during the period he was chief of the General Staff of the Guatemalan Army from 1981 to 1982.
General Benedicto Lucas García speaks to a group of international journalists regarding a cache of weapons recently found by the military in a Ejército Guerrillero de los Pobres, Guerrilla Army of the Poor, EGP, safe house, Santa Cruz del Quiché, Guatemala, February 1, 1982. President Romeo Lucas García appointed his brother Benedicto Lucas García as chief of the General Staff of the Guatemalan Army in August of 1981 in response to the growing threat of insurgency to the military regime. Benedicto Lucas García was trained in irregular warfare and counterinsurgency at the controversial School of the Americas, SOA, and executed the military's scorched earth campaigns against the civilian Maya population. He was sentenced along with four other Guatemalan ex-officials on May 23, 2018 to 58 years in prison for crimes against humanity and aggravated sexual assault against Emma Guadalupe Molina Theissen and for the forced disappearance of her 14 year-old brother, Marco Antonio Molina Theissen, in 1981. Lucas García is currently on trial in Guatemala in a separate case of genocide, crimes against humanity, and forced disappearance of the Maya Ixil population during the period he was chief of the General Staff of the Guatemalan Army from 1981 to 1982.
General Benedicto Lucas García points out possible locations of guerrilla presence on a map to international journalists at the regional military base in Santa Cruz del Quiché, Guatemala, January 19, 1982. Guerrilla organizations listed on the map include the Ejército Guerrillero de los Pobres, Guerrilla Army of the Poor, EGP, and the Organización Revolucionario del Pueblo en Armas, Revolutionary Organization of People in Arms, ORPA. In the 36-year domestic armed conflict lasting from 1960 to 1996, an estimated 200,000 people were killed, up to 45,000 civilians were forcibly disappeared, and between 500,000 and 1.5 million people were internally displaced or fled the country. Guatemala's Historical Clarification Commission determined 93 percent of the violence was committed by government forces.