Guatemala City – Fourteen Guatemalan Indians were publicly flogged, forced to kneel on bottle caps and shorn of their hair after being convicted by a traditional assembly of various offenses, local media reported Tuesday.
The so-called “Maya punishment,” provided for in traditional codes acknowledged by the modern nation-state, was applied Monday in the northwestern town of Nahuala, community leader Pascual Ixmata told the press.
The 14 accused – four of them women – were whipped and forced to kneel on bottle caps, and their hair was cut off.
The male miscreants, who were charged with sniffing glue, also had sacks of sand placed on their shoulders, Ixmata said.
The women scourged Monday had been accused of selling children to adoption brokers, the same crime for which 12 other Indians – eight men and four women – were subjected to the “Maya punishment” 10 days ago in the town of Pasajaquin.
