Activist teams are urging Canada to prosecute a person they are saying was concerned within the bloodbath of greater than 200 individuals in Guatemala in 1982
MONTREAL — Two activist teams on Wednesday referred to as for Canada’s authorities to prosecute a person believed to be residing in Canada who they are saying was concerned within the bloodbath of greater than 200 individuals in Guatemala in 1982.
The Canadian authorities has been trying to strip former Guatemalan soldier Jorge Vinicio Sosa Orantes of Canadian citizenship since 2017 on the grounds that he was an lively participant within the bloodbath and lied about his function when he utilized for citizenship.
In paperwork filed in federal court docket, Sosa Orantes has mentioned he was not even within the village of Las Dos Erres when the killings befell.
Legal professionals With out Borders Canada and the Canadian Partnership for Worldwide Justice mentioned at a information convention that Canada shouldn’t turn into a retirement vacation spot for alleged conflict criminals and that he needs to be prosecuted for crimes in opposition to humanity and conflict crimes.
In 2014, Sosa Orantes was sentenced to 10 years in jail in america for mendacity about his function within the Guatemalan civil conflict in his U.S. citizenship software.
U.S. court docket data present he was launched from jail in July 2019 however remained detained by immigration authorities till late 2020, and the teams say they have been knowledgeable by an American nongovernmental group that he has since been deported to Canada.
The Canadian authorities has mentioned in court docket filings it believes Sosa Orantes was a senior member of a navy particular forces unit and directed different troopers as they tortured, raped and killed villagers.
It additionally alleges he threw a grenade and fired a gun right into a properly the place victims, some nonetheless alive, had been thrown.
U.S. prosecutors have mentioned Sosa was a member of a particular forces patrol that went to Dos Erres in December 1982 to seek for weapons believed stolen by guerrillas. The weapons have been by no means discovered and prosecutors say the patrol determined to kill the villagers after a number of the troopers started raping the ladies.
Greater than 20 years later, Sosa failed to say his navy service or function within the bloodbath on his software to turn into an American citizen though the paperwork inquired about affiliations and previous crimes, prosecutors mentioned.
Sosa left Guatemala in 1985 and sought asylum in america, claiming he was fleeing Guatemalan guerrillas. After being denied asylum within the U.S., he visited the Canadian consulate in San Francisco to hunt haven in Canada. He was granted refugee standing, finally changing into a everlasting resident and citizen of Canada.
He later married an American and utilized for naturalization within the U.S. in 2007.