Outrage as Guatemalan Maya spiritual guide is tortured and burned alive

[Judi Lynn]

Domingo Choc Che’s final moments captured on video

Four suspects held after attack on indigenous elder

Jeff Abbott in Guatemala City

Wed 10 Jun 2020 05.14 EDT

Police in Guatemala have arrested two men and two women on suspicion of murder after a respected indigenous Maya spiritual guide was tortured, doused in gasoline and burned to death after being accused of witchcraft.

Domingo Choc Che, 55, an expert on traditional herbal medicine who had worked with researchers from University College London, was seized from his home in the village of Chimay on Saturday night by a group of people.

The abductors accused him of carrying out a ceremony on a family grave and tortured and beat him for more than 10 hours before setting him alight on Sunday morning, according to a local prosecutor. Three other suspects remain at large.

A widely shared video of his final moments shows Choc Che running in flames and begging for help before collapsing. Nobody comes to his assistance.

. . .

The 1996 peace accords for the first time recognizing the rights of indigenous peoples to their traditions and spirituality. But persecution continues against those who practice Maya spiritualism, which is often referred to as “witchcraft” by conservative Christian religious groups.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/10/guatemalan-maya-spiritual-guide-tortured-burned-alive

[Pachamama]

1. This is so awful...

[Judi Lynn]

3. Unbearable. Atrocities like this have been supported by right-wing regimes throughout LatAm. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

2. Important to remember: Did Reagan Finance Genocide in Guatemala?

Ronald Reagan Had a Cozy Relationship With Guatemalan Dictator Efrain Rios Montt
By
SANTIAGO WILLS
May 14, 2013, 5:19 PM
6 min read

May 14, 2013— -- On Monday, a Guatemalan court ordered the country's government to apologize to the Ixil population for the crimes of José Efraín Ríos Montt, a dictator who was sentenced to 80 years in prison for his role in war crimes committed between 1982 and 1983.

The verdict concluded that the army, under the command of Ríos Montt, had engaged in a campaign of genocide against the Ixiles, a small Mayan ethnic group. In that sense, it finally offered an answer to the thousands of victims' families who had pleaded for justice since the 1980s.

The trial did not answer all questions, however. For example, it did not place much attention on the extent of U.S. involvement in Guatemala during the 17 months of Ríos Montt's regime. That's in spite of the fact that America reached out to the Central American country offering military aid to combat left-wing guerrillas.

"U.S. military and intelligence units worked closely with the Guatemalan army over the decades of Guatemala's civil war," said Geoff Thale, Central America Program Director at the Washington Office for Latin America (WOLA). "Direct U.S. military aid was suspended during the Carter Administration, but then restored by the Reagan Administration, whose Cold War worldview clearly prioritized the fight against insurgents and their civilian supporters over respect for human rights."

More:
https://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/News/ronald-reagan-finance-genocide-guatemala/story?id=19179627

[Mike 03]

4. Guatemalan genocide Wikipedia entry

Most of the massacres listed here occurred under Reagan in what they here call the Silent Holocaust period (1981 - 83). Horrific.

Guatemalan genocide

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guatemalan_genocide#Select_massacres