Guatemalan military veteran implicated in massacre is deported

Federal immigration authorities have wrapped up the deportation of a former Guatemalan military advisor implicated in a massacre almost 30 years ago. The suspect, Pedro Pimentel Rios, had lived in Santa Ana for about 20 years.

Authorities suspect that Rios took part in the killing of at least 162 people during a military-led action in the Guatemalan village of Dos Erres.

During that country’s civil war, an army unit retaliated against people there after rebels in the area made off with some of its weapons. The number of deaths may be much higher; a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says another 100 villagers remain missing and unaccounted for 29 years after the attack.

Rios had helped to train an elite Guatemalan army unit called Los Kaibiles; he’s one of four men linked to the massacre that immigration authorities have located in the United States.

In May, a federal judge rejected 54-year-old Rios’ petition for asylum; this week, immigration agents in Los Angeles took him to Mesa, Arizona and flew him from there to face Guatemalan authorities in his native country.