Breaking the Silence in the Search for Justice
CALDH graphic ”Truth, Memory, Justice – Rights of all people”.
From 1960 to 1996, a brutal civil war raged in Guatemala in which more than 200,000 people died. The war ended with the signing of Peace Accords, after which the United Nations-sponsored Historical Clarification Commission (CEH) spent two years documenting the atrocities of the war. The Commission’s report, entitled “Guatemala: Memory of Silence,” found the state responsible for 93% of the crimes committed during the conflict. The majority of the victims were indigenous. According to the Commission, this constituted genocide. The report made several recommendations, among them that the state provide economic reparations for victims and bring the perpetrators of crimes to justice.
February 25, 2009, marked the tenth anniversary of the report’s release. Numerous events were organized to commemorate the anniversary and take stock of the progress over the last decade. The events were bittersweet. Important advances toward peace have been made, but the most important of all – justice – remains elusive. The intellectual and material authors of war crimes – those who developed plans and issued orders, and those who carried them out – largely remain unpunished, many of them enjoying lives of wealth and power.
One moment that captured this painful reality was when Guatemala’s President, at a public commemoration for victims of the conflict, lauded the handover of military plans related to four major massacres in the early 1980s. In 2008, after years of legal battles by human rights organizations such as the Centre for Legal Action in Human Rights (CALDH), an Inter Pares counterpart, the Constitutional Court ruled that the secret military plans be made public. These documents are important evidence in the genocide case against former General Ríos Montt, the dictator in power during the years of the genocide – a case that CALDH is leading.
But as the President made his speech that day, the Minister of Defense was handing over only two of the four documents, stating that the other two had “disappeared.” Such has been the struggle for justice in Guatemala – a slow march of hard-won victories that run up against seemingly insurmountable obstacles.
But from those hard-won victories emerge glimmers of hope. Victims of the conflict have organized themselves to challenge impunity in Guatemala, preserving collective memory of the genocide and demanding justice. One of these organizations, the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR), is playing a central role in emblematic cases such as the one against Ríos Montt. With the support of CALDH, the Association has organized witnesses to testify in this and other cases at the Inter-American Court and the Spanish National Court. The testimonies of these victims are tremendous acts of courage in a context of impunity and social silence about the war. Powerful interests ask victims to “forgive and forget,” to avoid opening up old wounds that in reality have never healed. When victims break this silence, they risk their security and even their lives. The bravery of AJR members to speak out publicly and tell their stories is the result of years of work, supporting victims to organize and building their skills so they can take on leading roles in their pursuit of justice.
The assistance CALDH has provided to the AJR has been central to the strengthening of the victims’ movement in Guatemala. Legal strategies for prosecuting cases are developed by CALDH in consultation with the Association, so that judicial processes always reflect the goals of the victims themselves and, as such, can contribute to the process of emotional healing. CALDH helped create a women’s caucus inside the Association for women members to share their experiences of gender-based violence during the war and to articulate their demands for justice as part of the organization’s agenda. CALDH supports the Association’s work with youth, the children of victims, to ensure that the memory of the genocide – and the struggle for justice – is not forgotten. With Inter Pares’ support, CALDH and the Association have had the opportunity to learn from struggles for justice in other countries in Latin America. All of this work has helped the Association become a recognized and influential social actor in Guatemala and has nurtured the courage of victims to speak out, confident in their ability to assert their right to justice.
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