Canadian Authorities Arrest Former Guatemalan Special Forces Commander Who Participated in Dos Erres Massacre
January 27th, 2011Via: Los Angeles Times:
A Moreno Valley martial arts instructor suspected of belonging to the Guatemalan military unit that killed more than 150 civilians, including children, in the country’s infamous Dos Erres massacre in 1982 has been arrested on immigration fraud charges after fleeing from federal authorities last year.
Jorge Sosa, 52, was arrested by Canadian authorities last week while visiting his parents near Calgary, and Justice Department officials are seeking his extradition back to California. Sosa holds both Canadian and U.S. citizenship.
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Authorities said that Sosa, also known as Jorge Vinicio Sosa Orantes, was a commander in a special forces unit known as the Kaibiles, which interrogated and then killed men, women and children while searching their Guatemalan village for guerrilla fighters who had ambushed a military convoy.
“During the course of these interrogations, the special patrol proceeded to systematically kill the men, women, and children at Dos Erres by, among other methods, hitting them in the head with a sledgehammer and throwing them into a well,” according to an Orange County federal grand jury indictment handed down Sept. 1. “Members of the special patrol also forcibly raped many of the women and girls at Dos Erres before killing them.”
Skeletal remains of about 150 people were later found in the village well, according to federal officials.
Related: U.S. Trained and Backed War Criminal: Efraín Ríos Montt
