source: NISGUA
June 21 marks National Day Against Forced Disappearance in Guatemala, honoring the estimated 45,000 people who were disappeared by the State during the Internal Armed Conflict. This year, NISGUA accompanied a commemoration organized by Genocide Never Again Coordination, a network of organizations that includes the Association of Family Members of the Detained and Disappeared in Guatemala (FAMDEGUA, by its Spanish acronym), Mutual Aid Group (GAM), Sons and Daughters for Identity and Justice and Against Erasure and Silence (HIJOS), and the Center for Legal Action in Human Rights (CALDH), among others. Volunteers set up 450 chairs in Plaza de Las Niñas, Guatemala City’s large, central public square directly in front of the Presidential Palace. Taped to each chair was a picture of one of the disappeared, as well as a flower. Throughout the event, all 450 pairs of photographed eyes were trained on the Palacio Nacional—a powerful reminder of the Guatemalan state’s’culpability in the repression of its own citizens.
That same day, the Presidential Commission for Peace and Human Rights (COPADEH, by its Spanish acronym) introduced the Humanitarian Search Mechanism for Disappeared Persons (MEBHU), a government program meant to support and expedite the process to reunite families with the remains of their loved ones. MEBHU, which comes thirty years after the signing of the Peace Accords, would not have been possible without the tireless organizing of groups like FAMDEGUA, GAM, HIJOS, and CALDH, as well as countless families and individuals.
In her speech, Marta Hernández Agustín, the sister of Luz Leticia, who was forcibly disappeared in 1982 and whose whereabouts remain unknown to her family to this day, reminded those present that the act of commemorating the disappeared has broader political implications.
“Imagine for a moment that the Guatemala of today is not what it its. That here is a country that respects rights. Where children have education. Where there is plenty of food....I dream of a Guatemala where we can live in peace. Where everyone enjoys the benefits of a state that is accountable to its people; and more than just being accountable, fulfills its obligations....I am the sister of Luz Leticia Hernández Agustín, and I believe that to have peace in my heart and to be able to say we’ve prevailed, we need to have the remains of my sister.”
