GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — A former rebel testified Tuesday that an ex-guerilla commander didn’t consult with his superiors in giving the order to kill 22 rural villagers the rebels suspected of collaborating with the army during Guatemala’s civil war.

Appearing as a witness in the first trial of a rebel commander charged with a mass killing in the 1960-96 war, Jaime Tuyux testified that defendant Fermin Felipe Solano Barillas alone made the decision in 1988 to kill the civilians in the village of El Aguacate.