Country Guatemala Climate Am | Department El Petén Founded 1795 | |
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La Libertad ([la liβerˈtað]) is a municipality in the El Petén department of Guatemala. It contains 79,416 people and has abundant oil reserves that have been commercialized by international oil companies since the 1980s.
Contents
Map of La Libertad, Guatemala
Dos Erres massacre
In October 1982, guerrillas ambushed an army convoy near Palestina, in the vicinity of Dos Erres. They killed 21 soldiers and took 19 rifles. On 4 December, a contingent of 58 Kaibiles (the elite special forces commandos of the Guatemalan Army) was flown into the area. The following day, they received orders to disguise themselves as guerrillas, deploy to Dos Erres and kill the inhabitants, who were considered guerrilla sympathizers. Dressed as guerrillas, the Kaibiles arrived in the hamlet at 02:30 hrs on 6 December. They forced the inhabitants out of their homes, corralling the men in the schoolhouse and the women and children in the hamlet's two churches. A subsequent search uncovered no sign of weapons or guerrilla propaganda. At 06:00, officers consulted superiors by radio, then informed the commandos they would be "vaccinating" the inhabitants after breakfast.
On 6 December 1982, during the de facto presidency of General Efraín Ríos Montt, over 200 people – including women, the elderly, and children – were killed there by commandos working as government forces as a part of the government's scorched earth policy.
The massacre continued throughout 7 December. On the morning of 8 December, as the Kaibiles were preparing to leave, another 15 persons, among them children, arrived in the hamlet. Allegedly, the kaibiles took the newcomers to a location half an hour away, then shot all but two of them.
Climate
La Libertad has a tropical monsoon climate (Köppen: Am) and its municipal capital is 188 m above sea level.