arbitrary executions,56 among other violations, affected the structures of indigenous authority and leadership, destroying the social fabric and the traditional social relationships within the Mayan communities.57 According to expert witness Rosalina Tuyuc, one of the most representative effects is “the lack of continuity, especially to be able to hold the councils; but also, mainly, the whole meaning of the Mayan calendar, the meaning of the cycles for planting, for the harvest, and also the role of women and men in [the Mayan] culture.” According to the expert witness, for many years it was not possible to talk about this, as the elderly, who were the ancestral authorities, were the first targets of the persecution. Expert witness Tuyuc explained that “the backbone of the culture of the Mayan peoples is located in the elderly, but also in the role of the parents,” thus, the death of the elderly “has meant an enormous loss of identity.” The impact on the cultural life of the Mayan peoples is irreparable, “because there is no possibility of recovering [so many] lost years in order to learn the Mayan cosmovision.”58 In this regard, the CEH Report indicates that, with the disappearance of the individuals, “the modern technical and accumulated traditional knowledge accumulated over the years was also lost, as well as the possibility of transmitting it naturally to the new generations, [and this] begins to illustrate the magnitude of the long term impact.”59 62. The CEH Report also records that “the immediate impoverishment of the families that suffered from the measures taken under the scorched-earth policy and had to displace was increased by the significant difficulty of recovery owing to the total loss of the family wealth, sometimes built up over years and even generations.” In this regard, in many cases those who were killed, disappeared or displaced during the armed conflict were “a major, if not the only source of support for their families. Their loss signified the immediate impoverishment of the family.”60 63. Based on all the foregoing, the Court notes that the massacres of the community of Río Negro took places in a systematic context of grave and massive human rights violations in Guatemala. According to the CEH, “[i]n general, the human rights violations and the violations of international humanitarian law committed give rise to the unavoidable responsibility of the State of Guatemala.”61 56 As it has been established in other cases concerning Guatemala heard by this Court, the forced disappearance of persons in this country constituted a State practice at the time of the internal armed conflict; it was carried out mainly by agents of its security forces. The disappeared persons were retained clandestinely without informing a competent, independent and impartial judicial authority; they were tortured physically and mentally to obtain information and, in most cases, they were even killed. In addition, forced disappearance was used to punish not only the victims, but also their political or social group and their family. In this regard, the Report Guatemala, Nunca Más indicated that “[t]he selective murder of leaders often had a dimension of persecution of their family also, either before or after the acts of violence […]. The persecution of the civilian population by the military forces had a community dimension in many parts of the country. The accusations of participation in or support for the guerrilla involved many whole communities that were branded as ‘guerrillas.’” Cf. Case of Chitay Nech et al. v. Guatemala, supra paras. 66 to 67 and 69 57 Expert witness Rosalina Tuyuk indicated during the public hearing that the violence resulted in the destruction of the social tissue, inter alia, because the death of children and the elderly led to the absence of coexistence and the rupture of family ties. In addition, she indicated that the search for the disappeared and the lack of State support for the exhumations in clandestine cemeteries had entailed an emotional burden for the Mayan peoples. According to the expert witness, the fact of being unable to find their family members “among either the living or the dead,” of being unable to give them a decent burial and carry out their farewell rituals, has kept open the mourning process suffered by these peoples. 58 Expert opinion provided by Rosalina Tuyuk Velázquez during the public hearing. 59 Report “Guatemala, Memoria del Silencio”, supra, third chapter, para. 4447 60 Report “Guatemala, Memoria del Silencio”, supra, third chapter, para. 4447. 61 Cf. Case of the Plan de Sánchez Massacre v. Guatemala. Merits, supra, para. 42.8, and Case of the Dos Erres Massacre v. Guatemala, supra, para. 83. 26