Guatemalan massacre suspect extradited

GUATEMALA CITY – A former member of an elite Guatemalan military force suspected of carrying out a 1982 massacre was extradited from the United States on Tuesday, ending a two-decade exile in which he spent years working in a Southern California sweater factory.

Pedro Pimentel Rios, 54, was flown on a government-chartered plane to Guatemala and turned over to authorities.

The news was celebrated in Guatemala by a lawyer for victims of the Dos Erres massacre, in which more than 150 people were killed. Witnesses say men, women and children were tortured and robbed by the soldiers as part of a “scorched earth” effort to eliminate communities supporting insurgent groups at the height of Guatemala’s 36-year civil war.

Pimentel, a former instructor at the Guatemalan training school for a force known as the “kaibiles,” was ordered deported from the United States in May when an immigration judge rejected his bid for asylum.

He is one of more than a dozen former kaibiles who have been sought by Guatemalan authorities for the killings.

U.S. authorities have helped track down four of them. Three were arrested last year in the United States, and another was located and arrested in Canada and now faces extradition requests to the United States and Spain.