WASHINGTON — The United States on Tuesday deported a Guatemalan man wanted for allegedly taking part in a village massacre that killed 162 people during the country's decades-long civil war.
Pimentel Rios, 54, was taken to Guatemala on a flight chartered by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and "was immediately turned over to Guatemalan law enforcement officials" to face charges for the December 1982 massacre in the village of Las Dos Erres, according to an ICE statement.
The former soldier and current maintenance worker in California was reportedly a member of an elite army unit known as the Kaibiles, which committed the killings of men, women and children while looking for leftist insurgents.
Rios was arrested in 2010. In May a judge ruled he could be extradited for his alleged involvement in the extra-judicial killings.
"For the families who lost loved ones at Dos Erres, justice has been a long time coming, but they can take consolation in the fact that those responsible for this tragedy are now being held accountable for their crimes," said ICE director John Morton.
Rios is one of four former Guatemalan military officers linked to the killings who have been arrested.
Gilberto Jordan was sentenced to 10 years in prison in Florida for lying about his role in the massacre in his US citizenship application.
Santos Lopez Alonzo was indicted last year for having re-entered the United States after being deported, and Jorge Sosa Vinci, who was arrested in Canada, is awaiting extradition to the United States, according to ICE.
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