Guatemala has marked the 35th anniversary of the Spanish Embassy massacre just weeks after a historic verdict in the case. Thirty-seven peasant activists and student organizers were burned to death in 1980 after the Spanish Embassy in Guatemala City was set on fire. The activists had been occupying the embassy to protest government repression. Last month, former police chief Pedro García Arredondo was found guilty of ordering the attack and sentenced to 90 years in prison. A memorial was held to mark the 35th anniversary on Saturday. Rigoberta Menchú, whose father, indigenous peasant leader Don Vicente Menchú, died in the massacre, said a copy of Arredondo’s guilty sentence will be stored at the memorial.

Rigoberta Menchú: “Well, first of all, it was the truth. I mean, I think we have been drawn out from the dark, from the abandonment of the truth of the massacre of the Spanish Embassy. The sentence is huge. To read it completely takes six hours, so therefore we will place it in a box here at the foundation, and you can go by in a little while to see where it will always be for those who want to ask questions about the sentence.”