The Canadian government is taking steps to strip the citizenship from a former Guatemalan military commander who actively participated in the 1982 massacre that left 75,000 dead and 250,000 displaced.

Jorge Vinicio Sosa Orantes, who is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence in the United States for immigration fraud, was a second lieutenant in the Guatemalan army during the massacre.  Sosa Orantes is accused of slaughtering villagers in Guatemala using a grenade, gun, and sledgehammer during a decades-long civil war between Guatemalan government forces and guerrillas.

The move is particularly notable since Canada has only stripped citizenship in a handful of modern-day war crimes cases.

While completing his Canadian citizenship application, Sosa Orantes allegedly failed to disclose the details of his military involvement in Guatemala.  Concealing this information provided the government grounds to initiate revocation proceedings in Federal Court.

Under section 10 of the Citizenship Act, the government may revoke a person's citizenship if the Minister is satisfied on a balance of probabilities that the person has obtained his or her citizenship by false representation or fraud or by knowingly concealing material circumstances.

However, in situations where the person has concealed information relating to their participation in the commission of a war crime, the government must prove their case in Federal Court and obtain a declaration to that effect.  The declaration has the effect of revoking the person's citizenship.

Had Sosa Orantes disclosed the details of his involvement in the Guatemalan military on his citizenship or refugee application, he would have been inadmissible for entry into Canada under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

Submissions filed in Federal Court allege that Sosa Orantes was a senior member of a military special forces group that attacked the Guatemalan village of Las Dos Erres in December 1982.  The unit was sent to interrogate villagers after military rifles were allegedly stolen during a guerrilla ambush of military troops.  The unit killed at least 162 civilians, including 67 children.

"The members of the special forces group killed their victims by hitting them on the head with a sledgehammer, by hitting their heads on a tree, by shooting them, or by slitting their throats," the submission says.  "In other cases, victims were simply thrown into [a 18-metre dry] well while they were still alive."  At one point, Sosa Orantes allegedly fired his rifle into the well and then tossed a grenade in.  In supervising the killings, Sosa Orantes mocked soldiers under his command "who showed any hesitation to commit the murders".

Sosa Orantes fled Guatemala in 1985 and sought asylum in California, claiming he was fleeing the guerrillas.  When he was denied asylum by the United States, he attended the Canadian Consulate in San Francisco and applied for and was granted refugee status in Canada.  He later became a permanent resident and a citizen of Canada.  In 2007 he applied to become a naturalized citizen of the United States after he married an American woman and obtained a green card.

Sosa Orantes was living in Los Angeles and working as a martial arts instructor when U.S. authorities searched his home in 2010.  He fled to Mexico and then to Canada.

In 2011, Sosa Orantes was arrested in Lethbridge, Alberta and extradited to California.  In ordering his extradition, the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench found sufficient evidence that Sosa Orantes was one of the commanding officers involved in the Las Dos Erres raid and that he "actively participated in the killings with a sledgehammer, with a firearm and a grenade."

Sosa Orantes stood trial for lying about the massacre on his naturalization application and is now serving a 10-year sentence for immigration fraud.

His U.S. citizenship was revoked in 2014 and he is expected to be deported from the United States after his sentence ends.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.