August 5, 2014 Re: Case No. 12,788 Members of the Village of Chichupac and Neighboring Communities of the Municipality of Rabinal Guatemala Mr. Secretary: It is my pleasure to address you on behalf of the Inter-American Commission on Human rights for the purpose of submitting Case 12,788 – Members of the Village of Chichupac and Neighboring Communities of the Municipality of Rabinal with respect to the Republic of Guatemala (hereinafter “the State,” “the Guatemalan State,” or “Guatemala”), to the jurisdiction of the Honorable Inter-American Court of Human Rights. This case involves a series of massacres, extrajudicial executions, tortures, forced disappearances, and rape against the members of the village of Chichupac and neighboring communities of the municipality of Rabinal, in the context of operations by the Army and collaborators during the internal armed conflict in Guatemala. On January 8, 1982, 32 persons were tortured and massacred. From 1981 to 1986, 39 persons were tortured and extrajudicially executed in the context of several operations. All these persons were civilians and were defenseless when they were detained, tortured, and executed. Moreover, eight persons were disappeared on August 24, 1981, January 8, 18, and 31, and February 12, 1982, and December 13, 1984. All these persons were last seen under the custody of state agents, and their whereabouts remain unknown to this day. In addition, on January 8, 1982, and November 22, 1982, two women were raped, and from October 1982 to June 1985 another woman was the victim of multiple rapes. This last person was also a victim of forced labor in the “Chichupac model village” under orders of members of the National Army. The Commission also found that the survivors of the village of Chichupac and neighboring communities were victims of forced displacement. Related to this series of violations, the Commission also found, in the case, violations were committed of the right to honor and dignity, the freedom of conscience and religion, the freedom of association, the right to property, and political rights. The facts of the instant case are part of a state strategy aimed at destroying an ethnic group through military operations that resulted in the massacre of thousands of members of the Maya indigenous people, the flight of the survivors, the destruction of their subsistence economies, and, finally, the intentional subjection of thousands of Maya indigenous persons to conditions of existence that meant they were dependent on the military structure. In summary, the Commission considered that the facts of the case constituted part of the genocide against the Maya indigenous people in Guatemala. More than three decades after the events, and more than two decades after the first report was received, the facts remain in the most absolute impunity. Mr. Pablo Saavedra Alessandri, Secretary Inter-American Court of Human Rights Apartado 6906-1000 San José, Costa Rica Attachments