At a time when protests against violence and racism increase around the world, a horrendous crime motivated by discrimination has taken place in Guatemala, also combined with the fanaticism and profound ignorance that have remained in that society for centuries.

The tragic, unfortunate events occurred in the village of Chimay, in the municipality of San Luis Petén, located in the northern region of the country.

A violent mob attacked the Mayan researcher Domingo Choc, whom they accused of practicing witchcraft.  He was burned alive.

In 2024, it will be 500 years since the arrival of European settlers to what is now Guatemala.  And with it came the breakdown of indigenous people’s history and the emerging of ills never seen before in these lands.

Pedro de Alvarado and his forces had already destroyed wonderful civilizations in present-day Mexico and set out to do the same in the new territories conquered with the emblem of the cross and the sword.

Religion was the ideological excuse for killing hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions of people to facilitate the appropriation of their natural resources, such as gold, silver, fertile land and slave labor.

Since the best way to break a body is by first destroying its soul, the conquerors reduced the sciences, knowledge and traditional practices of these peoples to the medieval concept of "witchcraft" -- which implies a satanic worship.

Their rituals became clandestine, the Ajq’ij, their spiritual guides, had to flee to the mountains to preserve their beliefs and Mayan wisdom turned into something suspicious.

This is how the ruthless Bishop Diego de Landa described indigenous traditions to the villagers of Maní, Yucarán, where in 1562 he had burned hundreds of books, codices, inscriptions, objects of worship and scientific manuals in a great bonfire that overshadows history.

Just a few days ago, Domingo Choc was burned alive as a witch.  The pitiful beliefs and racism, are still deeply rooted.  It didn’t matter that he was a renowned scientist and researcher.  He had collaborated on development projects with the universities of Zurich, in Switzerland; University College London in England and the Universidad del Valle, in Guatemala. 

He also contributed with the publication of a book on Mayan herbal science, as explained by the anthropologist and sociologist Monica Berger.

There were no mass demonstrations against this racist hate crime.  Perhaps, for many people, he was only someone of indigenous descent, a warlock, because they are unable to even imagine all the lost knowledge, all the wisdom that had accumulated in the mind of this human being who never deserved such a fate.