59
192. Similarly, the psychologist Gómez Dupuis explained that “daily life, celebrations and rituals
revolved around the land, its production cycles and the community’s social organization” and
that “displacement caused the rupture of support networks, the rupture with the land and the
ancestral culture.” She emphasized that “cultural practices were seriously damaged by the
exclusion and stigmatization of the Maya Achí population.”
193. The Court considers that the testimony given by Napoleón García de Paz at the public
hearing is consistent with these expert reports. Mr. García told the Court that after surviving the
events of November 26, 1982, in which eight persons were victims of forced disappearance, he
left his community to take refuge in the mountains. There, together with his wife and children,
he also survived the events of March 2, 1983, in which eight people were executed (supra paras.
110 to 112). He explained that he subsequently went to Guatemala City and currently lives in
Rabinal, without having returned to his village. Regarding the events he experienced and the
displacement, he said that he feels “pain […] because one is a native of the village of Xeabaj
[…], I have this feeling because things are no longer the same in the village, no people, no family
- all my family, my brothers were killed, I’m the only one left […], it’s very painful for the Maya
race that it is finished; those in the Army want to eliminate us, because they say we’re Indians,
the say we’re worthless because we can’t speak Spanish. That’s why I have this feeling that our
beloved communities passed away […]. I haven’t even gone to my village because […] I’m afraid,
any little rocket over there makes me think that the Army is coming here, but no. Why? Because
your mind is traumatized.”
194. The Court likewise notes that forced displacement also affected the religious life of the
members of Chichupac village and neighboring communities. According to psychologist Gómez
Dupuis, “[d]uring those years the people stopped performing their devotions to the earth, rain,
harvest, health, or for the dead and their communion with their ancestors. With the passage of
time, people in the community have gradually recovered their cultural practices, and several
community elders who managed to survive the massacre preserve the ancestral knowledge.
However, several families converted to new religions such as the charismatic and evangelical
churches. […] Cultural practices have also been lost among those who were permanently
uprooted to other municipalities, particularly the young people who grew up away from their
ancestral lands and embraced new identities,” “far removed from their family, their traditions,
their traditional dress and their language.” 202
195. The expert witness Salvadó Cardoza also referred to “the difficulty of carrying out certain
cultural practices in the new environment,” and to the “apparently sudden changes in traditional
spirituality, including the appearance of new evangelical churches looking for followers.” He also
referred to the impact on religious practices, since people could no longer go to the traditional
sacred sites of Rabinal, which meant “a very hard blow to the community and caused the rupture
of community life.” 203
196. The Court notes that this situation is consistent with what happened in the cases of the Río
Negro Massacres and Plan de Sánchez Massacre, whose victims were mostly members of the
Maya Achí people, including children, women and men who lived in the villages and communities
of the municipality of Rabinal, Department of Baja Verapaz, who were forced to leave their
communities and take refuge in the mountains, as well as in other places, due to the persecution,
violence and destruction of their homes and communities in the context of Guatemala’s internal
armed conflict. In these cases, the Court also found that the persons who suffered forced
displacement to areas far from their community lost the opportunity to participate in the
Cf. Report on the damage to mental health (moral) prepared by the psychologist Nieves Gómez Dupuis on May 5,
2010, and presented before the Inter-American Commission(evidence file, folios 1313 to 1315, 1319 and 1324).
203
Cf. Written report of the expert witness Luis Raúl Francisco Salvadó Cardoza presented during the public hearing
held on April 28, 2016 (evidence file, folios 11676 to 11677), and expert opinion of Luis Raúl Francisco Salvadó Cardoza
presented before the Inter-American Court during the public hearing on April 28, 2016.
202