![‘Huge step’: Relatives of Guatemala disappeared hope for justice](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cdm-Marcia-1.jpg?resize=1200%2C630)
‘Huge step’: Relatives of Guatemala disappeared hope for justice
Al Jazeera
Retired military officials will stand trial on charges of disappearing and killing dissidents in 1980s during civil war.
Guatemala City, Guatemala – Marcia Mendez never stopped searching for her sister. Now, decades after Luz Haydee was disappeared by Guatemalan military forces, justice may be on the horizon, after a Guatemalan judge this month ordered a trial into crimes committed in the 1980s. “For us this is already a huge step forward,” Mendez told Al Jazeera outside the Guatemala City courthouse complex following the hearing last week. Luz Haydee Mendez Calderon was detained and disappeared in 1984 – one of an estimated 45,000 people disappeared during the civil war in Guatemala. An estimated 200,000 people were killed over the course of the 1960-1996 armed conflict.More Related News