{"id":641,"date":"2014-02-10T15:51:19","date_gmt":"2014-02-10T23:51:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=641"},"modified":"2014-02-11T20:17:57","modified_gmt":"2014-02-12T04:17:57","slug":"former-guatemalan-special-forces-officer-california-resident-sent-prison-involvement-1982-massacre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=641","title":{"rendered":"Former Guatemalan Special Forces Officer and California Resident Sent to Prison for His Involvement in 1982 Massacre"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Los<\/a>
Los Dos Erres, Guatemala<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A federal judge today sentenced a former Guatemalan Special Forces officer and California resident to 10 years in prison for covering up his involvement in a 1982 massacre at Los Dos Erres, Guatemala.<\/p>\n

Jorge Sosa, 55, of Moreno Valley, California, was a member of a Special Forces patrol that removed people from their homes, separated the men from the women and children, and raped some of the young girls, according to trial evidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cJorge Sosa helped orchestrate the ruthless massacre of innocent villagers, including dozens of young children, and then lied about his past to obtain refuge in the United States,\u201d said Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili\u00a0Raman.\u00a0 \u201cAnd, today, he has been sentenced to serve 10 years in a U.S. prison.\u00a0 This prosecution demonstrates our resolve to deny safe haven to human rights violators and to ensure that these criminals are held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

At sentencing, the court also revoked Sosa\u2019s U.S. citizenship, officials said.<\/p>\n

In early 1982, Sosa and other Kaibil instructors were chosen to be part of the Special Patrol, a small unit formed\u00a0<\/strong>to combat guerilla forces.\u00a0During this time, the Guatemalan Army was engaged in armed conflict with anti-government forces referred to as the \u201cguerillas,\u201d according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

The Special Forces patrol, including Sosa, were deployed along with 40 other Kaibil soldiers to the village of Dos Erres to recover military rifles in December 1982 that were purportedly stolen during a guerilla ambush of Guatemalan soldiers, federal officials said.<\/p>\n

When the Special Patrol entered Dos Erres, the rifles were not found and there was no evidence of guerilla soldiers in the area.<\/p>\n

\u00a0To cover up the rapes, authorities said all of the villagers were brought to the center of the village, \u00a0where the Special Patrol members systematically killed the men, women and children by, among other methods, bludgeoning them on the head with a sledgehammer, shooting them or throwing them into the village well while still alive.<\/span><\/p>\n

Testimony from two Kaibiles who participated in the massacre revealed that Sosa supervised the Special Patrol soldiers as they filled the well with Dos Erres villagers.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The evidence also showed that at some point during the massacre, a villager screamed out at Sosa from the well, and Sosa responded by cursing and shooting his assault weapon and throwing a grenade into the well,” – \u00a0according to \u00a0U.S. Attorney’s Office.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Sosa was convicted by a federal jury in Riverside, Calif., on Oct. 1, 2013, of one count of making false statements in immigration proceedings and one count of unlawful procurement of naturalized U.S. citizenship.<\/p>\n

Evidence presented during trial showed that Sosa became an officer in the Guatemalan Army in 1976, was part of Guatemala\u2019s elite Special Forces division called the Kaibiles and was an instructor at the Kaibil School.<\/p>\n

During this time, the Guatemalan Army was engaged in armed conflict with anti-government forces referred to as the \u201cguerillas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Testimony from two Kaibiles who participated in the massacre revealed that Sosa supervised the Special Patrol soldiers as they filled the well with Dos Erres villagers.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The evidence also showed that at some point during the massacre, a villager screamed out at Sosa from the well, and Sosa responded by cursing and shooting his assault weapon and throwing a grenade into the well.<\/span><\/p>\n

About\u00a012 years after the massacre at Dos Erres, the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team \u00a0—\u00a0Equipo Argentino de Antropologia Forense<\/em>, or EAAF — \u00a0exhumed the 40-foot well.<\/p>\n

At trial, a member of EAAF testified that the team found 162 skeletons in the well.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Of those skeletons, 67 appeared to be those of children under the age of 12.<\/p>\n

Sosa became aware he was being investigated for unlawfully procuring citizenship, he fled the United States to Mexico and eventually traveled to Canada.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Sosa was arrested in Canada and extradited to the United States to face these charges.<\/p>\n

The jury found that when Sosa applied for lawful permanent residence in 1997 and naturalized U.S. citizenship in 2007, he knowingly omitted the fact that he was a member of the Guatemalan military and that he had committed a crime for which he had not been arrested.<\/p>\n

During trial, a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service examiner testified that had Sosa been truthful about his past, his applications for permanent residence and citizenship would have been summarily denied, authorities said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A federal judge today sentenced a former Guatemalan Special Forces officer and California resident to 10 years in prison for covering up his involvement in a 1982 massacre at Los Dos Erres,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-courts","category-home-main-slider"],"yoast_head":"\nFormer Guatemalan Special Forces Officer and California Resident Sent to Prison for His Involvement in 1982 Massacre<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A federal judge today sentenced a former Guatemalan Special Forces officer and California resident to 10 years in prison for covering up his involvement\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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