May 29 marked the 25th anniversary of what has been dubbed the Panzos massacre, one of the most brutal massacres of indigenous peasants in Guatemalan history, during which soldiers, encouraged by local landowners, killed at least 53 civilians. The incident occurred as a response to increasing grassroots organization among the Q’eqchi’ Maya Indians in the riverside town of Panzos, serving as the first in a long series of massacres which characterized the Guatemalan civil war and eventually took the lives of over 200,000 people, many of them indigenous. In commemoration of the incident, some 200 survivors gathered on Thursday in the streets and small church of Panzos. A quarter century after the massacre there have still been no action taken against those responsible.
