Sepur Zarco case

During the 36-year-long Guatemalan civil war, indigenous women were systematically raped and enslaved by the military in a small community near the Sepur Zarco outpost.

Background
The Guatemalan Civil War went on from 1960-1996. Sepur Zarco is an indigenous Q'eqchi' community in Guatemala. In Sepur Zarco, Mayan Q'eqchi' peasant leaders had angered local landowners by fighting for the legal titles to the land upon which they had lived and worked for years. The landowners called in the army for protection.

The army declared the men of the community as far-leftist insurgents, captured them, and made them disappear. The women of the village were kept as sexual slaves.