Guatemala will pay $3 million (€2.08 million) to compensate victims of a civil war-era massacre in order to comply with an international court ruling, the nation's human rights chief said.
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights called for the payments after concluding that the Guatemalan government failed to fully investigate a three-day raid on the mountain hamlet of Dos Erres in 1982 where more than 200 villagers were killed by a special forces unit.
"It's a strong message," said the government's highest human rights official, Ruth del Valle.
Center-leftist President Alvaro Colom was elected in 2007 on a platform of reconciliation with the country's violent past. Earlier this month, a retired Guatemalan colonel was convicted of ordering the forced disappearance of people during the civil-war era.
Dos Erres became emblematic of one of the most brutal massacres during Guatemala's 36-year civil war between government forces and leftist guerrillas that left up to 250,000 people dead, mostly indigenous Maya.
A United Nations-backed Truth Commission found soldiers threw babies against trees and walls and tossed their bodies into a well, while helpless family members were trapped inside a church only later to be killed themselves.
In a report released yesterday, the court, under the Organisation of American States, said the government should pay more than $3 million to family members of victims and for court costs.
It also said the case against army officers responsible for the killings - stalled in local courts - must be fully resolved and a memorial built at the massacre site where some of the bodies have been exhumed by forensic teams.
Since peace agreements were signed in 1996, few authorities have faced justice for human rights violations carried out during the conflict.
Reuters