A.2. Situation in Santa Lucía Cotzumalguapa, Escuintla 79. Santa Lucía Cotzumalguapa (hereinafter “Santa Lucía”) is a municipality located in the Department of Escuintla, Guatemala, with some of the largest sugarcane farms on the country’s south coast. A number of factors converged in this area which led to attacks against certain sectors of the population, 82.of which Mr. A.A. formed part (infra para. 82). During the 1970s, the Comité de Unidad Campesina or Peasant Unity Committee (hereinafter “CUC”) 83 created a broad base of support linked to the pastoral work of the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (CICM), organized by Belgian priests. 84 At the beginning of that decade, “several parishes in the diocese of Escuintla […] began carrying out social pastoral work through the so-called Families of God,” 85 with a view to “incorporating local communities into the traditional pastoral work […],” according to a statement by a member of the CICM. These groups addressed “social issues such as jobs, wages, authorities, access to land, health care, schooling, etc.” 86 In the 1980s, pastoral agents “who supported the organization and demands of workers on the large farms of the south coast” suffered reprisals, and dozens of catechists were killed or forcibly disappeared in Escuintla. 87 According to the CEH, the Army in that department “associated union leaders and anyone who demanded their labor rights, with the insurgency,” while State agents recruited community members as informants and “snitches,” which led to the rupture of the social fabric and community ties. 88 80. After the conflict ended, in accordance with the commitments made upon signing the Agreement for a Firm and Lasting Peace, the Government enacted local legislation which acknowledged Guatemala as a “multiethnic, multicultural and multilingual” nation. In 2002, the National Congress issued Decree 12-2002 (Municipal Code) 89 and Decree 112002 (Law of Urban and Rural Development Councils), creating the system of Community Development Councils, 90 for the purpose of “organizing and coordinating public administration through policymaking on development, budgetary plans and programs and the promotion of inter-institutional coordination, both in the public and private sectors.” The Community Development Councils (hereinafter “COCODES”) established in the Municipality of Santa Lucía Cotzumalguapa, 91 to which Mr. A.A. and Mrs. B.A. belonged (infra paras. 87 and 90), were meant to operate as “the principal means for the participation of the Maya, Xinca, Garifuna and non-indigenous populations in public affairs, in order to pursue a democratic process of development planning, taking into account the national, multi-ethnic, multicultural and multilingual unity of the Guatemalan people.” 92 82 Cf. Commission for Historical Clarification (CEH), Guatemala Memory of Silence, Illustrative cases, Annex I, Illustrative case No. 13 (File of attachments to pleadings and motions brief, page 4696). 83 According to the report Guatemala, Memory of Silence, “[d]uring the 1960s, the population organized itself in the ligas campesinas to demand their rights, especially labor rights [… so that in 1978] the Comité de Unidad Campesina (CUC) was created, the largest peasant organization in the country after the counter-revolution of 1954[.] A large number of workers joined this organization and began to make a series of claims, including demands for a minimum wage and improved working conditions on farms of the South Coast.” Cf. Commission for Historical Clarification (CEH), Guatemala Memory of Silence, Chapter 1, page 238, Tome III, page 379, para. 3437 (File of attachments to pleadings and motions brief, pages 2936 and 3883). 84 Cf. Commission for Historical Clarification (CEH), Guatemala Memory of Silence, Illustrative cases, Annex I, Illustrative case No. 56 (File of attachments to pleadings and motions brief, page 4702). 85 Cf. Commission for Historical Clarification (CEH), Guatemala Memory of Silence, Illustrative cases, Annex I, Illustrative case No. 74 (File of attachments to pleadings and motions brief, page 4695). 86 Cf. Statement of a member of the CICM of December 1, 2010 (File of attachments to submission brief, pages 1346 and 1347). 87 Cf. Commission for Historical Clarification (CEH), Guatemala Memory of Silence, Illustrative cases, Annex I, Illustrative case No. 56 (File of attachments to pleadings and motions brief, page 4704). 88 Cf. Commission for Historical Clarification (CEH), Guatemala Memory of Silence, Illustrative cases, Annex I, Illustrative case No. 74 (File of attachments to pleadings and motions brief, page 4708). 89 Cf. Decree 12-2002 of the National Congress of Guatemala of April 2, 2002 (Merits file, page 948). 90 Cf. Decree 11-2002 of the National Congress of Guatemala of April 15, 2002 (Merits file, pages 1656 and 1657). 91 Cf. Statement of December 5, 2010 of the former municipal Mayor (File of attachments to submission brief, page 794), and Certification of Record 04-2004 of September 11, 2004 (File of attachments to submission brief, page 1124). 92 Cf. Decree 11-2002 of the National Congress of Guatemala of April 15, 2002 (Merits file, pages 1656 and 1657). 25