OTTAWA — A man accused of slaughtering villagers in Guatemala using a grenade, gun and sledgehammer is fighting Canada’s attempt to revoke his citizenship.
Jorge Vinicio Sosa Orantes denies he concealed participation in a 1982 massacre by the Guatemalan military when he obtained Canadian citizenship a decade later.
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In documents filed in the Federal Court of Canada, Sosa Orantes says he was not even in the village of Las Dos Erres when the events took place.
Sosa Orantes, 59, is serving a 10-year sentence for immigration fraud in the United States, where he also held citizenship until it was revoked in 2014.
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The Canadian government says Sosa Orantes was a senior member of a military special forces group that led a mission to the Guatemalan village in December 1982 to interrogate inhabitants after some military rifles were allegedly stolen during a guerrilla ambush of troops.
Military members killed at least 162 civilians, including 67 children.
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