A Guatemalan court on Friday sentenced three former paramilitaries to 40 years in prison for sexual violence against Indigenous women during the country's civil war in the 1980s.
The defendants, aged between 53 and 67, were Indigenous members of militias tasked by the military to fight leftist guerrillas during a conflict that left an estimated 200,000 dead or missing.
Former Civil Self-Defense Patrol members Pedro Sanchez, Simeon Enriquez and Felix Tum were found guilty of crimes against humanity for sexually assaulting six members of the Achi Mayan ethnic group in the 1980s, Judge Maria Eugenia Castellanos said.
"I am innocent of what they are accusing me of," Sanchez told the court before the sentencing.
The sentence comes more than four decades after the crimes were committed, between 1981 and 1983, a period of extreme bloodshed.
In 2012, five former paramilitaries were similarly convicted in the 1982 massacre of 256 Achi Mayans in the same area.
Indigenous lawyer Haydee Valey, who defends Achi women, said the sentence is "historic" because it finally recognizes the struggle of the survivors who have demanded justice for decades.
One of the victims, 62-year-old Paulina Ixpata, told AFP: "We managed (to win) a second trial against the patrol members who committed crimes during the armed conflict... I am very happy."
Several Achi women in the courtroom applauded at the end of the trial, where some dressed in traditional attire, and others listened to the verdict through an interpreter.
It was the second trial involving Achi women who were victims of multiple rapes in villages and at an army base in Rabinal, north of Guatemala City.
Between 2011 and 2015, a group of 36 victims filed complaints against former military personnel and paramilitaries for sexual violence.
The NGO Impunity Watch said the case "highlights how the Guatemalan army used sexual violence as a weapon of war against Indigenous women" during the civil war.
"Sexual violence was used by the army as a method to control, punish, and instill fear in Indigenous communities, as well as to degrade the women and their descendants," it said.
In 2022, five other former paramilitaries were sentenced to 30 years in prison for the crimes.
