<p class="title">A Guatemalan court on Wednesday sentenced a former soldier to 5,160 years in prison for the massacre of 201 peasants during one of the worst atrocities of the Central American nation's civil war.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The court found Santos Lopez "responsible as author" of 171 of the killings and sentenced him to 30 years for each, or 5,130 years in total.</p>.<p class="bodytext">He received an additional 30 years linked to the killing of a surviving child, but the sentences are symbolic because Guatemala's maximum prison term is 50 years.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Lopez was a member of a US-trained counterinsurgency force called Kaibil.</p>.<p class="bodytext">He was arrested in the United States and deported in 2016.</p>.<p class="bodytext">According to the investigation, Lopez belonged to a patrol that committed the massacre in December 1982 in Dos Erres, on the border with Mexico.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The soldiers were trying to recover about 20 rifles stolen by guerrillas during an earlier ambush which left 19 soldiers dead.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The story of Dos Erres was told in the 2017 documentary "Finding Oscar," executive-produced by Steven Spielberg, which recounts the search for another boy whose life was spared and who was then raised by one of the soldiers.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A handful of other "Kaibiles" have been convicted, each receiving a sentence of more than 6,000 years in prison.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Three others accused in the slaughter were jailed in the US for immigration violations. Several others are believed to reside in the United States.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The massacre occurred during the rule of dictator Efrain Rios Montt, who himself was indicted on charges of genocide and died last April.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Rios Montt allegedly ordered the murders of 1,771 indigenous Ixil-Maya people during his short reign in 1982-83, which came at the height of the 36-year civil war.</p>.<p class="bodytext">According to the UN, about 200,000 people died or were made to disappear during Guatemala's war, which ended in 1996.</p>
<p class="title">A Guatemalan court on Wednesday sentenced a former soldier to 5,160 years in prison for the massacre of 201 peasants during one of the worst atrocities of the Central American nation's civil war.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The court found Santos Lopez "responsible as author" of 171 of the killings and sentenced him to 30 years for each, or 5,130 years in total.</p>.<p class="bodytext">He received an additional 30 years linked to the killing of a surviving child, but the sentences are symbolic because Guatemala's maximum prison term is 50 years.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Lopez was a member of a US-trained counterinsurgency force called Kaibil.</p>.<p class="bodytext">He was arrested in the United States and deported in 2016.</p>.<p class="bodytext">According to the investigation, Lopez belonged to a patrol that committed the massacre in December 1982 in Dos Erres, on the border with Mexico.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The soldiers were trying to recover about 20 rifles stolen by guerrillas during an earlier ambush which left 19 soldiers dead.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The story of Dos Erres was told in the 2017 documentary "Finding Oscar," executive-produced by Steven Spielberg, which recounts the search for another boy whose life was spared and who was then raised by one of the soldiers.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A handful of other "Kaibiles" have been convicted, each receiving a sentence of more than 6,000 years in prison.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Three others accused in the slaughter were jailed in the US for immigration violations. Several others are believed to reside in the United States.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The massacre occurred during the rule of dictator Efrain Rios Montt, who himself was indicted on charges of genocide and died last April.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Rios Montt allegedly ordered the murders of 1,771 indigenous Ixil-Maya people during his short reign in 1982-83, which came at the height of the 36-year civil war.</p>.<p class="bodytext">According to the UN, about 200,000 people died or were made to disappear during Guatemala's war, which ended in 1996.</p>