The Diplomat. Madrid
The Spanish ambassador Yago Pico de Coaña has finished writing a book about the assault on the Spanish embassy in Guatemala, carried out in 1980 by that country’s security forces and army, which ended with the death of 37 people, among them the consul, Jaime Ruiz del Árbol.
The book, titled “Thirty four years later” will be presented on 26 November, in Madrid. In it, Pico de Coaña, who was sent by the Spanish government to investigate the massacre and to watch over Spanish interests, offers a detailed revision of what happened when, after the eruption into the building of a group of peasants who were protesting the repression of General Romeo Lucas’ dictatorship, the Guatemalan security forces and military assaulted the Embassy, despite the opposition of the ambassador, Máximo Cajal, who was one of the few survivors.
