Searching for Justice in Guatemala
Participants in the "National forum on Latin American experiences in truth, justice, and reparations."
VOLUME 29, NUMBER 3, SEPTEMBER 2007
In the fall of 2006, Inter Pares staff Alison Crosby and Samantha McGavin travelled to Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador. The following is excerpted from Samantha's travel journal about the Guatemala portion of their trip.
It seems as if all of Inter Pares' stories about Latin America include tales of bumpy roads, and now I understand why. Alison and I have just spent a week driving along extremely long, winding, and uneven roads in the rural areas of Chiapas, southern Mexico; our journey will now take us across the border into Guatemala, where we will spend the next week.
Inter Pares and Project Counselling Service (PCS), our operational counterpart in Latin America, have worked together for almost thirty years in support of populations affected by the armed conflicts that have devastated the region. As part of this work, Inter Pares collaborates closely with PCS through daily contact - planning activities, strategizing on future program directions, generating funds, and raising political support. Alison, the program manager for this region, visits the PCS regional Central America/Mexico (CAMEX) office at least twice a year, travelling with PCS to visit Inter Pares' local counterpart organizations in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. As a fundraising manager, I am visiting the region in order to glimpse first-hand this work that I have heard so much about, and to share the solidarity of our supporters back home.
Huehuetenango
Huehuetenango, the western department of Guatemala bordering with Mexico, is one of the richest in diversity of indigenous cultures and languages. It was also one of the areas of the country hardest-hit by violence during the four decades of armed conflict. There is a strong presence of returned refugee communities in Huehuetenango, and PCS has recently established a local office to support people affected by the armed conflict in local peacebuilding and democratization processes, especially those favouring women's and indigenous people's participation.
We are in Huehuetenango to participate in the "National forum on Latin American experiences in truth, justice, and reparations," organized by PCS, which has brought together local and national civil society organizations. The audience also includes high-level political figures, such as the director of the National Reparations Program (PNR), which was established at the recommendation of the Truth Commission to provide reparations to those who suffered human rights violations during the conflict. Together we listen while presenters address the legal, mental health, symbolic, and material aspects of reparation, both in Guatemala and in other Latin American contexts. Angélica Lopéz, a Mayan activist from Advocates for Change, a coalition that provides psychosocial support and accompaniment to victims of torture, speaks about the violence women suffered during the conflict, and the terrible repercussions for these women, their families, and their communities.
The forum is an important opportunity for civil society in Huehuetenango to come together to learn, dialogue, and strategize about how they can influence and participate in the PNR. At the end of the forum, participants decide to create a local roundtable to ensure that the voices of those most affected by the armed conflict are included in all national-level discussions concerning reparations.
Guatemala City
Guatemala City is a big sprawling city compared to Huehuetenango; it is also not a safe city. Much of the violence in Guatemala City is deemed by civil society to be a direct result of the armed conflict. Marginalized and poor women are killed in what is being called "feminicide"; there is widespread speculation that these crimes are part of a pattern of social cleansing, with the perpetrators linked to clandestine paramilitary structures that were never dismantled after the war. Men who have left paramilitary or military structures are also easy recruits into gangs; organized crime is widespread, and is suspected of reaching into the upper echelons of both government and the business world. Challenging these structures and seeking justice for war crimes is dangerous. Human rights defenders are threatened and attacked; they continue their work with heightened security, and an important part of Inter Pares' efforts is promoting international awareness of their situation to help protect them.
While in Guatemala City, we meet with PCS staff. There are many things to do: debrief on the Huehuetenango forum; look over financial reports; discuss the upcoming national election and its impact on our work; plan upcoming events, and talk about potential strategies for program development. Along with PCS colleagues, we also meet with two counterparts, Kaqla and Sector de Mujeres. Kaqla is a group of Mayan women intellectuals and activists, and Sector de Mujeres is a national network of women's organizations. Together we discuss their analysis of the political context, their current activities, and the challenges they face. We leave the meeting with new ideas about how PCS can support the strengthening of women's leadership across the region.
Meeting with the Canadian Embassy
Our final meeting in Guatemala is with the Canadian Ambassador and the Canadian Head of Development. We are joined by two PCS staff and by our colleagues Luz Méndez and Claudia Paz. Luz coordinates Advocates for Change, while Claudia directs the Institute for Studies in Comparative Criminal Sciences (ICCPG), an academic institute working on human rights, criminal justice policies, and security issues.
Samantha McGavin and Flory Yax of PCS.
ICCPG and Advocates for Change are integral participants in a regional program PCS has built with Inter Pares, which addresses sexual violence against women during armed conflict in three Latin American countries - Guatemala, Peru, and Colombia. It is a holistic program, with four goals: empowering women affected by sexual violence through healing processes; exploring legal avenues for prosecuting cases of sexual violence committed during the armed conflicts; raising awareness about sexual violence as a crime with the public, government, and civil society; and strengthening the capacity of women survivors to influence reparations plans so that they reflect their needs and perspectives.
Today, we introduce the Ambassador and Head of Development to Claudia and Luz, and share information about the program to which the Canadian International Development Agency is financially contributing. We are also establishing a relationship between the Embassy and our counterparts, so that they may be resources to each other for analysis and support. We affirm during our meeting the value of the Canadian government's political and financial commitment to this sensitive and important work.
Afterwards, as we hug goodbye in the hallway, I remind Luz and Claudia that our Canadian supporters too are there with them in their struggles. As we wave goodbye, I am buoyed by the wonderful feeling of being a kind of ambassador myself of the solidarity and encouragement of thousands of people who may live far away, but today are close in spirit.
Click here to read the full version of this article presented as a photo essay.
Inter Pares and PCS began supporting Guatemalan refugee organizations in Mexico in the 1980s, and accompanied them in their return to Guatemala during the 1990s. Today Inter Pares and PCS are supporting civil society organizations in the search for truth, justice, and reparations for crimes committed during the war, including the systematic use of sexual violence as a weapon of war. We are also increasingly focused on promoting and protecting the human rights of migrants, whose safety is increasingly endangered by the growing militarization of the Mexican-Guatemalan border (as a "final frontier" between Central America and the U.S.).
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