From School of the Americas Watch

On March 2, 2018, in Guatemala began the trial against former General Benedicto Lucas García, who served as chief of the Army's General Staff; of former General Manuel Callejas y Callejas, former head of military intelligence; Francisco Gordillo; Edilberto Letona; and Hugo Zaldaña; for the forced disappearance of Marco Antonio Molina Theissen, and for the kidnapping and rape of Emma Guadalupe Molina Theissen. Of the 5 ex-military, the first four are graduates of the School of the Americas (SOA / WHINSEC).

On September 27, 1981, Emma Guadalupe was arrested in Santa Lucía, Utatlán. Emma was sent to a Military Zone in Quetzaltenango where she was the victim of torture and sexual abuse. 9 days later she managed to escape. On October 6, three soldiers dressed as civilians arrived at the house of the Molina Theissen family. Marco Antonio, then 14 years old and brother of Emma Guadalupe, was arrested. Since then he remains disappeared.

The forced disappearance of Marco Antonio Molina Theissen is only one among the 45 thousand disappearances of which Guatemala's Historical Clarification Commission, commonly called the truth commission, is aware. 5 thousand of the forced disappearances victims were minors.

The trial of the Molina Theissen case is one of the efforts for truth and justice begun in Guatemala. In 2016, 14 military personnel were prosecuted for the forced disappearance of at least 558 people between 1981 and 1988. Several of those prosecuted are also SOA / WHINSEC graduates.

Guatemala has sent more than 1,800 soldiers to the SOA / WHINSEC. Between 2012 and 2017 alone, 133 agents have been trained by the United States to repress their people.

In a press conference, Roy Bourgeois, founder of SOA Watch said that the School of the Americas "has caused much suffering in Guatemala, many deaths, a lot of torture. This school is known as a school of assassins, a school of dictators, a school of torture "adding that" what happened in Guatemala was not possible without the participation of the US and the School of the Americas."