Tag Archives: Latin America

Argentina: Thousands of women march to the Plaza de Mayo to demand justice for Lucía Pérez

. . WOMEN’S EQUALITY . .

An article from Radio Mitre

Under the slogan “We are all Lucia. Patriarchal justice is impunity, ” thousands of women marched to Plaza de Mayo to claim justice for Lucía Pérez, who was found dead in Mar del Plata in October 2016.


Those accused of femicide and sexual abuse were acquitted at the end of November. In opposition to this ruling, the demonstration occupied more than two city blocks.

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(Click here for the original article in Spanish)

Questions related to this article:

Protecting women and girls against violence, Is progress being made?

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“Justice for Lucia / we march for life not femicide / not one less / we want to live”, was the chant that became louder and louder in the minutes before six o’clock, when thousands of women began the mobilization .

Marta Montero, Lucia’s mother, along with her son Matías, came especially from Mar del Plata, where there was also a mobilization in which Father Guillermo participated, to make his claim heard before the Courts, the point where the concentration began. The young man, who cried during several moments of the march, had in his hands a portrait of his sister with the words: “Justice for Lucia: it was a femicide.” Her death, in 2016, had prompted the first national strike of women.

“Not one less, we want to live”, was one of the chants of the march, which stopped at Diagonal Norte and Cerrito so that the more than one hundred women who headed the march that reached Plaza de Mayo could lie down, as if dead, on the asphalt.

With photos of Lucía Pérez, women of all ages demanded Justice: from a little girl who is no more than 3 years old to Nelly Minyersky, historical reference of the National Campaign for the Right to Legal, Safe and Free Abortion, who has already passed 80. “Feminism is going to win, patriarchy is going to fall, it is going to fall”, was the cry that generated tears in some of the girls lying down on the pavement.

Latin America, WOMEN'S EQUALITY

Spain: Professor Marta Gonzalo, Keynote Speaker at the International Congress of Mediation and Culture of Peace

… EDUCATION FOR PEACE …

An article by Raúl García Hémonnet for the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (translated by CPNN)

Marta Gonzalo, professor of private international law at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC), has been the European and Spanish representative in the second edition of the International Congress of Mediation and Culture of Peace. Her intervention focused on comparing experiences and mediation proposals between Latin America and the European Union.

The Second Edition of the International Congress of Mediation and Culture of Peace, held at the end of November in Panama, brought together academics and professionals from countries such as Panama, Argentina, Costa Rica, Cuba and other European countries. The meeting served to carry out a joint reflection on the current panorama of mediation and the different paths towards the Culture of Peace.

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(click here for the Spanish version)

Question for this article:

Mediation as a tool for nonviolence and culture of peace

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The URJC professor focused on making several concrete proposals in her keynote address: ‘Experiences and proposals for mediation compared: Latin America – European Union’

Through these proposals, she invited all attendees to conduct collaborative practices in conflict management. Not only from the point of view of mediation and law but also from a real and effective collaboration from all areas involved in the resolution of conflicts.

She called for collaboration of legal, social, political and cultural actors to favor mediation and seek collaborative solutions to conflicts that satisfy all those involved. Based on these elements, the professor urged changes in all areas, proposing specific measures in the host country, Panama, with concrete proposals about information, education, legislation, training and dissemination.

She also invited all attendees to join the Conference of Universities for the Study of Mediation and Conflict (CUEMYC) and to work in the international framework and in a global manner on practices that encourage and encourage mediation towards an authentic culture of peace.

EDUCATION FOR PEACE, Europe, Latin America,

First Indigenous woman is elected Federal Deputy in Brazil

. . SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . .

Special for CPNN by Myrian Castello, on the basis of information from CIMI, El Pais and BBC

Joênia Wapichana has been elected as a federal deputy in Brazil, the first indigenous woman to occupy the position in 194 years of history of Parliament. She is a a lawyer, 43 years old, and was elected with more than 8,000 votes. “Everyone has a mission in life. Mine is to defend indigenous collective rights,” she says in her Instagram account. This is the second time that an indigenous is elected to the Chamber of Deputies. The first was Mário Juruna.


Photo: Valdir Wasmann

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(Click here for the Portuguese version of this article.)

Question for this article

Indigenous peoples, Are they the true guardians of nature?

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Among the cases that she can defend as an elected Federal Representative are indigenous collective rights, the struggle for indigenous women, sustainable development, respect for the environment, transparency, ethics and the fight against corruption.

In an interview with the Indigenous Missionary Council Joenia reiterates the need to demarcate indigenous lands by FUNAI [National Indian Foundaion] based on the criteria of the Constitution. As a strategy, she intends to begin her mandate as a member of the federal government, to devote her work to combat anti-indigenous proposals and to listen to all proposals considered as priorities by organizations and entities that defend indigenous rights.

 Through dialogue with indigenous peoples and organizations, Joênia intends to propose a system of indigenous school education of its own, to have laws that recognize indigenous professionals in other areas, and also in the long term to develop specific public policies for youth and women, in addition to working on sustainability and partnerships.

Latin America, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Colombia: Today the Truth Commission begins its mandate

… . HUMAN RIGHTS … .

An article from El Espectador (translation by CPNN)

The Truth Commission, which was born out of the peace agreement between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrillas, begins its mandate this Thursday [November 29] to clarify what happened during half a century of armed conflict.

With a symbolic ceremony, held in Corferias de Bogotá, this Thursday will begin on the day zero of this extrajudicial entity, which, for three years, will be challenged to hear, understand and interpret the voices of the actors of the armed conflict.

Its mission: to build a final report that establishes patterns of violence and facts of victimization. In the words of Father Francisco de Roux, president of the Truth Commission, from this day we are on a path that seeks reconciliation and that we will not repeat what happened.

“We hope we can contribute to Colombia seeking the truth in a sincere, transparent way, which is a public good and is the responsibility of all of us in Colombia. We hope to contribute in depth with our communication and pedagogy and with the Casas de la Verdad that we are starting to open in different regions in the form of a mobile team with the communities,” he said in an interview with the Justice for Peace chapter of Colombia2020 .

They will be eleven commissioners of the truth – accompanied by an interdisciplinary team – who will go to nine regions of the country and through mobile groups will collect testimonies from all sectors that will voluntarily provide information on the most serious facts of the conflict.

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(Click here for the original Spanish version of this article.)

 

Question related to this article:

Truth Commissions, Do they improve human rights?

What is happening in Colombia, Is peace possible?

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“This division of the country, and the location of the 26 houses of truth, are the product of the six months of work carried out by the Commission. During this time they also defined patterns of victimization that they intend to study, for example, torture, forced displacement, sexual violence, etc.,” said Truth Commissioner Saul Franco.

In addition to victim organizations, other organizations have approached the Commission, including members of the Military Forces, members of the former FARC and paramilitaries. However, as De Roux acknowledged, the political sector has not approached them. Former President Ernesto Samper – he revealed – has been one of the few who has expressed his intention to give his testimony before the Truth Commission.

It should be remembered that the truth commission is an extrajudicial entity that will not make judgments or assign individual responsibilities. “We must be aware that testifying to the Commission has an advantage: we are not judges, we are not going to punish anyone. We will protect the testimonies we receive. We have to use them to interpret what happened, unless the person who brings it says: ‘I want to give this testimony in public, because I want to contribute in a public impact to the transformation of the country.’ “, said Roux.

For Juan Carlos Ospina, coordinator of Advocacy of the Colombian Commission of Jurists, the challenges of the commission can be summarized in three points: first, organize its work to address the knowledge of the armed conflict, which is very extensive and complex, in just three years ; second, to allow the widest participation of victims and citizens, and to manage expectations adequately (with publicity and transparency) about their work. Third, build trust from the beginning. Listen to all the actors in the conflict and generate conditions for the construction of a culture of peace (respect, coexistence, reconciliation, co-responsibility and non-repetition) based on their work. Fourth, carry out its work (keeping in mind its complexity) not to judge wherever possible in view of the adverse scenario for peace created by the change of government and congress.

Finally, another of the Commission’s challenges is to face the resistances of the sectors that question their positions and their suitability. The wide variety of voices and the inclusiveness of the story, as the commissioners affirm, will be decisive for their legitimacy.

HUMAN RIGHTS, Latin America

Colombia’s rural radio stations are a key to peace

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

An article from Vision of Humanity

Community radio stations are a hopeful medium for improving the free flow of information in Colombia, especially in the poorest and most remote regions. 

I want you to imagine a dilapidated but colourful radio station studio, nestled in verdant Colombian jungle and protected overhead by a dense canopy. Inside, a man speaks into a microphone. He strategically omits his name from his broadcast for fear of an armed group active in a village nearby.


Colombia has been at war for 60 years. It is one of the longest wars in modern history and is perpetuated by poverty, political underrepresentation and a lack of access to healthcare, education or land rights for rural people. In the mid-1960s, armed militias emerged from both ends of the political spectrum in these rural areas, many joining the FARC – the Armed Forces of the Republic of Colombia, the largest leftist rebel army in the country and some joining hard-right paramilitaries with corrupt ties to state security forces. In this context, the history of community radio runs deep in Colombia. In October 2016, former-President Juan Manuel Santos signed an historic peace agreement with FARC.

The agreement stipulated a commitment to media reform and community radio projects “in their production and dissemination of content to foster a culture of peace”.Today, some 450 internationally recognised community radio stations operate throughout rural and regional Colombia, actively opposing the armed conflict. Radio is a cheap and relatively accessible medium for most rural-dwelling Colombians in areas with poor infrastructure, no internet or electricity access. Inexpensive, battery-powered radios become a key source of information.

Community radio stations in Colombia date back to the early 1940s. Grassroots movements for peace used radio to protest against the treatment of rural farmers and poor families and to whistle blow the activity of illegal armed groups in their communities. In her book Citizens’ Media Against Armed Conflict, Clemencia Rodríguez highlights the significant role local media projects have played in networking grassroots organisations for peace in Colombia and in disrupting armed groups’ recruitment of young men. However, some stations are highjacked by armed groups and religious authorities with their own motives. Radio is a powerful medium.

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Question related to this article:

What is happening in Colombia, Is peace possible?

Journalism in Latin America: Is it turning towards a culture of peace?

How can peace be promoted by radio?

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Community radio stations and grassroots activists often become targets of armed groups, who see media projects as attempts to dissuade local people against their violent ideologies. In the post-peace agreement phase, it is critical that the international community, the Colombian Government and non-government organisations work together, to afford security measures to local radio stations and grassroots media workers.

According to a 2018 investigation by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Colombia is still one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. The World Press Freedom Index situates Colombia at a dismal 130 out of 180 countries. At most risk are those journalists situated in rural zones, where clashes between armed groups and drug cartels are frequent.The peace agreement in October 2016 saw a ceasefire and demobilisation of record numbers of FARC troops. However, other armed groups with similar ideologies to FARC remain active, such as the People’s Liberation Army, as well as right-wing paramilitaries and drug cartels. According to Human Rights Watch, right-wing paramilitaries in Colombia are responsible for a disproportionate number of extrajudicial killings, intimidation of journalists and censorship of violent events.

In Colombia, international and national policymakers, NGOs and citizens recognise local radio stations’ contributions to peace. The earliest examples of community radio networks supported by USAID, the EU and UNESCO, include Popular Cultural Action (ACPO). ACPO plays a role in educating rural communities and enabling them to have a voice on the aforementioned root causes of conflict in Colombia. Understanding how best to address these issues in the future remains a critical challenge for transitional justice policy. To build Positive Peace in the nation, local voices must be heard.

Organisations such as the Colombian Federation of Journalists and the Communication System for Peace (SIPAZ) today help to network local media projects and to ensure funding is directed to them. Funding is particularly critical given Colombia’s highly monopolised media context. According to RSF, small scale media projects have to compete for audience interest against more lucrative, pervasive media conglomerates and their ties to political and economic elites.

In August 2018, President Iván Duque, leader of the far-right Democratic Centre Party succeeded Santos. Duque opposed the peace agreement and its approach to transitional justice, vowing to renegotiate the agreement and prioritise justice for victims if elected. Ironically, it is victim’s voices that have been silenced in the process – the majority of peace agreement ‘yes’ voters are located in areas where the conflict has caused the most devastation. Duque’s campaign attracted voters from urban areas, but many rural voters lacked access to information on Duque’s political objectives or a medium through which to voice their concerns.

The link between access to information and peace is clear. Educational and talkback programmes on community radio stations have, and continue to be, significant platforms. Rural consumers can access information, have an opinion on political and justice processes and hold Duque’s government to account in the post-peace agreement phase.Evidently, these rural radio stations are key to peace because they are located where the majority of violence takes place, where international and even urban Colombian journalists rarely travel and where local people truly know and understand the causes and impact of conflict on their communities. This does not need to be a complex process. Rural communities have already laid the groundwork. They need recognition and support. Recognition that what they do makes a difference and support in one of the most hostile contexts in the world.

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, Latin America

Peace Boat brings anti-war message to Cuba

. .DISARMAMENT & SECURITY. .

An article from Granma

The danger posed to the world by the existence of nuclear weapons marked the focus of the debate in the Forum for Peace and Revolution, organized by the Japanese Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), Peace Boat, which this November docked at the port of Havana for the nineteenth time, and the second this year.

A message, signed by several civil society organizations, including the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, the Cuban Movement for Peace, and the Cuban Association of the United Nations, reiterated Cuba’s firm commitment to strengthening and consolidating international treaties on disarmament.


Departure of the Peace Boat, November 4, 2018, with 1,200 passengers from 22 countries on board. The Boat headed to Jamaica after its stay in Havana. Photo: Orlando Perea

“Seventy-three years have passed since the criminal atomic bombings of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and humanity continues to be threatened by the existence of more than 14,400 nuclear weapons, of which 3,750 are deployed and almost 2,000 are on operational alert,” read the text released in the presence of two survivors of the 1945 attacks on Japan.

In addition, young people were called on to join this struggle, raise awareness regarding the threat of a nuclear disaster, and defend humanity’s right to a future of peace. “Together with the nations that long for an end to all wars, and with the power of civil society at the international level, we will continue to demand that nuclear weapons prohibition agreements be complied with until their total elimination, and we will contribute to the construction of a culture of peace around the world,” highlighted the Cuban message.

The heartbreaking and eloquent testimony of those who experienced the horrors of the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, known as hibakushas, moved those present in the forum, as they described horrific images of walking among a multitude of corpses and burned people, whose faces no longer resembled those of human beings, screaming desperately for water.

Michiko Tsukamoto and Tamiko Sora were just girls at the time of the explosion, but it remains present in their memory. They suffered the loss of their loved ones, and today are among the few remaining survivors. They continue to talk about the tragedy because they recognize that the magnitude of the atomic attack has not yet been fully understood by all.

The Forum was also attended by Mako Ando, a Japanese youth representative committed to a world free of nuclear weapons, who works to raise awareness of the dangers posed if humanity fails to denuclearize. Referring to the hibakushas, she noted: “They suffer when they tell their stories, but they do so again and again because they do not want anyone else to experience such barbarism.”

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(Click here for the Spanish version of this article)

Question related to this article:

Peace Boat: Building a Culture of Peace around the World

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Speaking on the panel, D.Sc Leyde Rodríguez Hernández condemned the atrocities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: “We live in a time of enormous threats to international peace and security. The United States, the same power that has imposed an unjust and illegal economic, commercial, and financial blockade on the Cuban people, causing enormous human and material damages, has taken the initiative to destroy multilateralism in international relations and, with its devastating policy, dismantle the system of international treaties and agreements that served as a foundation for peace and security after WWII.”

He explained that nuclear weapons and missile defense systems today represent a serious threat to humanity, and the fight for their prohibition and total elimination should be of the highest priority, as a duty and a right of the peoples.

“The maintenance and modernization of nuclear weapons consumes much of the resources that could and should be destined for economic development, job creation, the reduction of poverty and hunger, health, education, and to prevent and combat natural disasters caused by global climate change. These resources should be redirected toward the development and fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goals included in the 2030 Agenda,” the vice-rector of the Higher Institute of International Relations added.

The Forum for Peace and Revolution was dedicated to commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Cuban revolutionary triumph, the 73rd anniversary of the criminal U.S. bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and to the memory of Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro, who received members of the boat twice (in 2010 and 2012).

Natsue Onda, director of this Peace Boat trip, condemned the interventionist policy of the U.S. blockade against Cuba, and said she was pleased to hold the event aboard the ship, in the presence of so many Cubans. She highlighted the friendship between Cuba and the organization, who share the same commitments in this field.

The Peace Boat has been visiting Cuba since 1989, and this is its 99th voyage around the world, carrying a message of peace and friendship. On this occasion, the ship was carrying 1,200 passengers of 22 nationalities (most of them Japanese), who toured different historic and tourist sites of Havana, and exchanged with community organizations related to senior citizens, culture, and with students.

In a press conference, travel coordinator Adrián Godínez stressed that passengers were very interested in visiting the island, thanks to the stories of previous participants, who highlighted the warm welcome received. Other motivations to visit include the popularization of Cuban culture on the Asian continent, especially salsa music, and interest in the history of the Cuban Revolution and its leaders.

The Peace Boat promotes its voyages online, on posters in public spaces, and through the 11 friendship with Cuba organizations that operate in Japan. The NGO Peace Boat received the Order of Solidarity awarded by the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba in 2009.

As a result of the first meeting with passengers of the ship in 2010, the historic leader of the Revolution, Fidel Castro, wrote a reflection titled “We will never forget,” in which he noted: “Now, as for your slogan – which, in my view has very special value, ‘Learn from past wars to build a future of peace,’ will undoubtedly always have meaning – at this moment it is more relevant than ever. I would dare say, without fear of being mistaken, that never in the history of humanity was there such a dangerous moment as this…”


DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, Latin America

Mexico: Artist’s Portraits Show Migrant Caravan’s Hope, Joy: ‘These Are Regular People’

TOLERANCE AND SOLIDARITY .

An article copied from 12 News Online and still available at the Huffington Post

A third-generation Mexican-American artist hopes to show fellow Americans a more personal view of individuals in the migrant caravan making their way to the United States from Central America.
“These are regular people,” said Scarlett Baily, a Mexico City visual artist who talked to some of the 5,000 or so people in the caravan while they rested in Mexico recently. As she considered how to help, she said she “decided to go draw portraits.”


(Click on the photo to enlarge)

“It was hilarious, delightful, and the joy and courage of this crew is truly contagious,” Baily told HuffPost. 

President Donald Trump has been claiming the caravan is an invasion, filled with terrorists, gang members and drug dealers. But Baily’s drawings show the worn but hopeful faces of people in the midst of an epic trek from poverty and violence in their home countries to the U.S., where many aim to apply for asylum. 

Trump, whose campaigning ahead of last week’s elections relied on fear of the migrants, ordered more than 7,000 active-duty troops to the border to deter asylum-seekers. He has been silent on the topic on social media  since the election. 

Their story “felt too mythical to be real,” Baily said via email, and she “had to meet these people.” 

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Question for this article

The refugee crisis, Who is responsible?

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“I think the bravest people on this journey are the mothers and children,” Baily said. News coverage, she added, “paints a very different picture of what I saw in my time spent at the camp.”

“Images of desperation, exhaustion, and suffering dominate a lot of the reports, when the reality is, there is actually a lot of joy,” she said. “This journey they are on is indeed hard-core. But imagine the conditions that someone leaves behind. I think there is a certain sense of freedom that comes with this decision.”

Mexico City officials turned a stadium into a camp where the migrants could pause on their journey, and “offered them every type of city service,” according to The New York Times. Doctors and dentists provided free checkups.

The caravan departed on Saturday morning to continue the walk north.

Baily said 25-year-old Jean Carlos told her he’s from Choloma, Honduras, worked in a bodega, goes to church every Sunday, loves to drive, and one day hopes to own a Mazda. He’s heading to Canada with cans of tuna in his pocket. 

Two young girls, Lincy and Nataly, are traveling with their mother, father, and 1-month old brother, who was born in Honduras just before they left. Lincy told Baily that she hates brushing her hair. Nataly loves to draw.

The family told Baily that traveling has been hard, but “so many families on the caravan together have created a great support system.”

Baily also spoke with a barber named Osman, whose friends call him the “Talento Catracho,” or the local Honduran talent. He told her he’s walking “because he wants to be able to support himself with his craft, without fearing the mafia system taking over Honduras.”

“Sitting with someone to do their portrait is a very personal exchange,” Baily said. The mood of most of those she talked to, she added, is dominated by hope. 

“My hope is that the caricatures provide a nice memory for people who left everything behind, a moment to feel celebrated, rooted for, and an alternative to what we see in mass media,” Baily said. “Perhaps these portraits may swap fear of migrants for a collective empathy.”  

[Click here to see more of Baily’s drawings of people in the caravan.]

Latin America, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY

7th Fair of Nonviolent Initiatives in Quito, Ecuador

.. DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION ..

An article and photo album by Walker Vizcarra in Pressenza (reproduced according to a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license) (translation by CPNN)

Questions for this article:

Can festivals help create peace at the community level?

More than 15 organizations that develop activities, projects and initiatives for active nonviolence, building a culture of peace, non-discrimination and respect for diversity have come together on the boulevard the United Nations in the city of Quito, last Saturday October 27th for the 7th Fair of Nonviolent Initiatives , which is one of the iconic activities carried out during “Nonviolent October.”

NonViolent October brought together collectives and organizations from 14 cities that launched more than 100 initiatives between the last week of September and the entire month October which ended a few days ago.

Click here for the photo album.

(Click here for a Spanish version of this article or here for a version in French. )

DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, Latin America

Mexico: Culture of Peace Congress – Necessity of the XXI Century

… EDUCATION FOR PEACE …

An article from Cuarto Poder (translation by CPNN)

The city of San Cristobal de Las Casas will host the First International Congress of the Culture of Peace, Necessity of the XXI Century, organized by the Faculty of Law of the Autonomous University of Chiapas (UNACH).

The director of the institution, Jacobo Mérida Cañaveral, informed the press that the activities will take place on the 25th and 26th of October in the school facilities.

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(click here for the Spanish original)

Question for this article:

Mediation as a tool for nonviolence and culture of peace

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Opening ceremony

The activities will begin at 09:00 hours, with the registration of participants and at 10:00 hours the opening ceremony with the participation of Óscar Ortiz Salcedo from the Research and Studies Institute for Peace.

Among the speakers, will be Isacc Monge Orossi, of the Judicial Power of Costa Rica; Emilio Carretero Morales, from the Carlos III University of Madrid, and Jacobo Mérida Cañaveral, director of the Faculty of Law of Unach.

The meeting is organized by the UNACH, through the Faculty of Law, Campus III, and the Institute of Research and Studies for Peace.

This activity will be divided into five thematic groups: Criminal mediation; Civil, family and labor mediation; Culture of peace from the perspective of law students; The institutionalization of the culture of peace and the teaching of the culture of peace.

Among the activities we can highlight are the lectures given by professors and the Carlos III University of Madrid, Spain, the Judicial Power of Costa Rica, the Research and Studies Institute for Peace, UNACH, among others.

EDUCATION FOR PEACE, Latin America

Sepur Zarco case: The Guatemalan women who rose for justice in a war-torn nation

…. HUMAN RIGHTS ….

An article from UN Women (abridged)

During the 36-year-long Guatemalan civil war, indigenous women were systematically raped and enslaved by the military in a small community near the Sepur Zarco outpost. What happened to them then was not unique, but what happened next, changed history. From 2011 – 2016, 15 women survivors fought for justice at the highest court of Guatemala. The groundbreaking case resulted in the conviction of two former military officers of crimes against humanity and granted 18 reparation measures to the women survivors and their community.


Maria Ba Call with members of her family. Photo: UN Women/Ryan Brown

The abuelas of Sepur Zarco, as the women are respectfully referred to, are now waiting to experience justice. Justice, for them, includes education for the children of their community, access to land, a health care clinic and such measures that will end the abject poverty their community has endured across generations. Justice must be lived.

The day the military came to take her husband and son is etched into Maria Ba Caal’s memory, but some of the details are fading. “When my husband and my 15-year old son were taken away, they were working men. The army came in the afternoon and took them away… I don’t remember the date, but that was the last time I saw my husband and son,” she said.

It’s been 36 years since that day. Maria Ba Caal is now 77 years old.

Like many other Maya Q’eqchi’ women of Sepur Zarco, a small rural community in the Polochic Valley of north-eastern Guatemala, Ba Caal is still looking for the remains of her husband and son who were forcibly disappeared and most likely killed by the Guatemalan army in the early 1980s.

The Guatemalan conflict

The Guatemalan internal armed conflict[1] dates back to 1954 when a military coup ousted the democratically elected President, Jacobo Arbenz. The subsequent military rulers reversed the land reforms that benefited the poor (mostly indigenous) farmers, triggering 36 years of armed conflict between the military and left-wing guerilla groups and cost more than 200,000 lives. Majority of those killed—83 per cent—were indigenous Maya people.[2] . . . .

In 1982[3], the military set up a rest outpost in Sepur Zarco. The Q’eqchi leaders of the area were seeking legal rights to their land at the time. The military retaliated with forced disappearance, torture and killing of indigenous men, and rape and slavery of the women.

“They burnt our house. We didn’t go to the Sepur military base (rest outpost) by choice…they forced us. They accused us of feeding the guerillas. But we didn’t know the guerillas. I had to leave my children under a tree to go and cook for the military… and…” Maria Ba Caal leaves that sentence unfinished. It hangs in the air as we sit in front of her mud shack. Her great grandchildren are playing nearby. She cries quietly.

Rape and sexual slavery are not words that translate easily into Q’eqchi. “We were forced to take turns,” she continues. “If we didn’t do what they told us to do, they said they would kill us.”

For years afterwards, Maria Ba Caal and other women who were enslaved by the military were shunned by their own communities and called prostitutes. Guatemala’s civil war was not only one of the deadliest in the region, it also left behind a legacy of violence against women.

The community of Sepur Zarco has about 226 families today. From the nearest town of Panzós, it’s a 42 Km drive down a dusty road that hasn’t been fully paved.

A few miles before Sepur Zarco stands the skeleton frameworks of a farm house in Tinajas Farm, surrounded by corn fields. In May 2012, the Fundación de Antropología Forense de Guatemala [the anthropological and forensic foundation of Guatemala] exhumed 51 bodies of indigenous peoples from this site, killed and buried in mass graves by the Guatemalan military. The evidence from Tinajas was one of the turning points in the Sepur Zarco case.

Paula Barrios, who heads Mujeres Transformando el Mundo (Women Transforming the World) explained that the indigenous communities living around the area believed that more than 200 men were brought here and never seen again.

“This was the truth of the Q’eqchi’ people, but we had to prove that the stories were true. The exhumation continued for 22 days and cost Q.100,000 (USD 13,500). Some families heard and came to the site, hoping to find their lost ones. Women from the Sepur Zarco community came and cooked for the crew. For four days they dug and dug but didn’t find any bodies. The anthropologists said that the next day would be the last day.”

“They found the first body the next day.”

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In 2011, 15[4] women survivors of Sepur Zarco—now respectfully called the abuelas (grandmothers)—took their case to the highest court of Guatemala, with the support of local women’s rights organizations, UN Women and other UN partners.

After 22 hearings, on 2 March 2016, the court convicted two former military officers of crimes against humanity on counts of rape, murder and slavery, and granted 18 reparation measures to the women survivors and their communities. This was the first time in history that a national court prosecuted sexual slavery during conflict using national legislation and international criminal law.

The abuelas fought for justice and reparations not only for themselves, but for change that would benefit the entire community. The court sentence promised to reopen the files on land claims, set up a health centre, improve the infrastructure for the primary school and open a new secondary school, as well as offer scholarships for women and children—measures that can lift them out of the abject poverty they continue to endure.

“When we took our case to court, we believed we would win, because we told the truth,” said Maria Ba Caal. “To me it’s very important that our voice and our history is known to our country so that what we lived through never happens to anyone else.”

As part of the reparation measures, civil society organizations worked with the Guatemalan Ministry of Education to develop a comic book for children, which narrates the history of Sepur Zarco. The book will be distributed in secondary schools across Guatemala City, as well as in the municipalities of Alta Verapaz area.

Only one of the 11 surviving abuelas who fought for the groundbreaking case has a home in Sepur Zarco. Most of the others live in the surrounding communities of San Marcos, La Esperanza and Pombaac in make-shift homes. There’s a small plot of land behind the women’s centre that’s now under construction, which has been promised to the abuelas for building their homes.

Maria Ba Caal and Felisa Cuc gave us a tour of the area. Felisa Cuc is 81 years old, and is waiting for her home. She wants a house of brick and tin.

“When I heard the sentence, I was very happy. I thought my life will improve. But at this moment, I don’t know if I will live long enough to see the results.”

Doña Felisa has had a hard life. The soldiers took her husband away in 1982 and tortured him. He was never seen again. “I was raped, along with my two daughters who were young married women then. Their husbands had left… We tried to escape, we sought shelter in abandoned houses, but the soldiers found us. My daughters were raped in front of me.”

The Sepur Zarco military rest outpost closed by 1988 and the conflict formally ended in 1996 with the signing of the peace agreement. But the abuelas continued to scramble for a bit of dignity, a bit of land, and food.

Doña Felisa took us to her home in Pombaac, walking through dirt roads across corn fields. The last house in Pombaac is hers.

“There are so many needs,” she said. “At this moment, I need something to eat. No one knows how much longer I will live. I need land for my children. Perhaps if they have land to cultivate they can help me, feed me.”

Out of all the reparation measures, land restitution is perhaps one of the most critical ones, but difficult to implement since much of the land being claimed is held privately. The President has to appoint an institution and the Ministry of Finance has to provide a budget to the institution to buy the privately held land and then redistribute it.

One reparation measure that has had some traction is the free mobile health clinic, which serves 70 – 80 people every day. “We had to walk long to get to a clinic, but now it’s closer. Each community takes turn to take care of the clinic. Many women from my community have received medicines, but there are sicknesses that cannot be treated here…we dream of a hospital that can treat all our illnesses,” explained Rosario Xo, one of the abuelas.

Demesia Yat, an outspoken figure among the abuelas, recognizes how far they have come and also what’s at stake: “Our effort, first as women, and second as grandmothers, is very important. It’s true that we got justice. We are now asking for education for our children and grandchildren so that the youth in the community have opportunities and aren’t like their elders who could not study. Our claims are with the government. We waited for many years for justice, now we have to wait for reparations.”

The Sepur Zarco case is about justice, as shaped by women who endured untold horror and loss, and today they are demanding to experience that justice in their everyday lives.

Notes

[1] The conflict in Guatemala is officially referred as the “internal armed conflict”.

[2] The timeline has been corroborated with facts from the following sources: Memory of Silence: The Guatemalan Truth Commission Report; Case Study Series: Women in Peace and Transition Processes and Timeline: Guatemala’s Brutal Civil War by PBS News Hour

[3] For more facts and figures, see https://www.ghrc-usa.org/our-work/important-cases/sepur-zarco/

[4] The lawsuit was based on the violation of 15 women from Sepur Zarco, but the court could only verify the evidence of 11 of them as three of the victims died.

HUMAN RIGHTS, Latin America