MikeDunnAuthor<p>Today in Labor History July 18, 1982: Over 250 Achi Maya (mostly women and children) were murdered by the Guatemalan armed forces and paramilitaries in the Plan de Sánchez massacre. They separated the girls, who were 15 to 20 years old, and raped them. Then they broke their arms and legs and killed them. Children were smashed against the floor and then thrown into the flames with their parents. Many of the weapons used by the Guatemalan military had been supplied by Israel, particularly after the U.S. Congress banned military aid to the country because of its atrocious human rights record. One relative of the victims said, "in church they tell us that divine justice is on the side of the poor; but the fact of the matter is, it is the military who get the Israeli guns."</p><p>The massacre was part of the scorched earth policies of dictator Rios Mont. Despite his history of genocidal war crimes, Rios Mont was repeatedly elected to Congress in the 1990s and early 2000’s. In 2013, he was sentenced to 80 years in prison for genocide and crimes against humanity, but his sentence was overruled by the Constitutional Court and he never served time.</p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/workingclass" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>workingclass</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LaborHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>LaborHistory</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/massacre" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>massacre</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/genocide" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>genocide</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/maya" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>maya</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/guatemala" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>guatemala</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/imperialism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>imperialism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/rape" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>rape</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/torture" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>torture</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/israel" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>israel</span></a></p>