A Guatemalan court convicted a former soldier for his role in a 1982 massacre and sentenced him to more than 6,000 years in prison . Pedro Pimentel Rios is the fifth former soldier convicted of atrocities for the killing of 250 people in the village of Dos Erres during the country 's civil war . Pimentel was extradited from the United States to Guatemala in July 2011 . Relatives of the victims said justice was late , but it finally came . `` By the grace of God I feel quite happy , because really you can see that justice is being done . ... It was an atrocity , what they did , '' said Ramiro Osorio , whose parents and siblings were killed in the massacre . Photos : Searching for the 'disappeared ' in Guatemala . The evidence presented by the prosecution and the testimonies of the witnesses proved that Pimentel was involved in the killings , Judge Irma Valdez said Monday . He was sentenced to 30 years each for 201 of the Dos Erres killings and another 30 on a charge of crimes against humanity . The former soldier told family members of the victims in court that he was shocked by what happened , but denied involvement in the massacre and argued that Guatemalan authorities were influenced by foreign interests in the case . `` Now a group of liars are graduating , and this trial is the exam , and they passed it . Everything they said was believed , '' he said . The judge ruled that Pimentel was part of a special unit known as the Kaibiles , who stormed the village , thinking that residents were hiding left-wing guerrillas . Last year , four other former soldiers -- Carlos Antonio Carias Lopez , Reyes Collin Guali , Daniel Martinez Mendez and Manuel Pop Sun -- were also sentenced to more than 6,000 years in prison for the same massacre . That trial was one of Guatemala 's first against former soldiers who served in the dictatorship era . More than 200,000 people were killed or `` disappeared '' between 1966 and 1996 , the United Nations estimates . The organization documented 669 massacres in Guatemala during the nation 's 36-year civil war , which ended in 1996 .
Survivor : ` ` justice is being done . ... It was an atrocity , what they did '' . Pimentel Rios denies he was involved in the 1992 massacre at Dos Erres . He is the fifth former soldier convicted of the massacre . Some 40 people were killed in the massacre .