GUATEMALA DETAINS RETIRED GENERAL RESPONSIBLE FOR CIVIL WAR MASSACRES http://www.namnewsnetwork.org/v2/read.php?id=161433

Guatemalan security forces on Friday captured the retired general Hector Lopez, who as former head of the armed forces is accused of being responsible for a number of massacres during Guatemala's violent civil war that ended in December 1996.Guatemala's National Police said that special security forces had arrested the 81-year-old Lopez at his residence in the Guatemalan capital where he was charged with his role in a series of massacres and the disappearance of civilians during the 1960-1996 armed conflict.

The majority of the incidents for which Lopez is charged are related to massacres of indigenous Mayan Indians in rural areas of Guatemala, especially in the western regions of Guatemala, committed during the 1982-83 military rule of Efrain Rios Montt, a general.

An estimated 200,000 people, mostly civilians of the landless Mayan population, were killed during the Guatemalan conflict while between 40,000 and 50,000 people disappeared, according to the United Nations Truth Commission on Guatemala.Relatives of the victims and the disappeared have for years pointed to Lopez as being one of the main responsible for the crimes committed during the civil war, the Public Ministry said