A Guatemalan court this week sentenced two former soldiers for crimes against humanity for the systematic rape of women during 1982 and 1983 at the Sepur Zarco military base.
The two men, Coronel Esteelmer Reyes Giron and Valdez Asig were also found guilty for the enforced disappearance of seven men. They have been sentences for 120 and 240 years.
“We find the treatment of the women of Sepur Zarco to have been completely humiliating and degrading," the judge, Jazmin Barrios said.
“There was a strategic design to pulverize the social fabric and to prevent its reproductive," she added.
Commenting on the sentencing, Amnesty International's Americas director, Erika Guevara-Rosas, was quoted by AFP as saying,
"These historic convictions send the unequivocal message that sexual violence is a serious crime and that no matter how much time passes, it will be punished. It is a great victory for the eleven women who embarked on a 30-year-long battle for justice."
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