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At 11:05 in the morning on January 31, 1980, the peasants, joined by workers and students, entered the Spanish Embassy in Guatemala City. According to police reports, some of the demonstrators were armed with machetes, pistols and Molotov cocktails.
- 31 January 1980; 43 years ago
- State terrorism
- 37 hostage (8 Spanish diplomats + 28 peasants and activists)
- Committee for Peasant Unity, Members of the Embassy of Spain in Guatemala
The 1980 burning of the Spanish Embassy in Guatemala was an assault by Guatemalan security forces that left 37 dead. After a decades-long search for justice, Pedro García Arredondo was found guilty on January 19, 2015 of orchestrating the massacre. He was sentenced to a total of 90 years in prison.
Nov 25, 2014 · On January 31, 1980, campesinos and students entered the Spanish embassy in Guatemala to protest their grievances; their communities in the country’s northern highlands were under attack by state security forces.
Jan 19, 2015 · Pamela Yates. January 19, 2015. The 1980 burning of the Spanish Embassy was a defining moment in the Guatemalan armed conflict. In Guatemala today, January 19, 2015, the case against former National Police Chief Pedro Garcia Arredondo on charges of the murder of the 37 people trapped in the Embassy will be decided.
Jan 20, 2015 · And, in fact, the weapon that was used to incinerate the Spanish Embassy and to burn those that occupied it is also of a dubious source that is being looked into and documented.
Dec 16, 2020 · On Jan. 31, 1980, machetes and guns drawn, activists hid in the ambassador’s office of the Spanish Embassy, locked from the inside. The exasperated group of campesinos—farmers and...
Dec 2, 2014 · On October 1, 2014, a so-called “high-risk” court in Guatemala began to hold hearings about a notorious 1980 fire at the occupied Spanish embassy that killed 37 protesters, diplomats, and others after security forces laid siege to it.
