Striking Realities

It's very challenging to know where to begin.

It's been over two months since I've written a blog post, but I kind of predicted this would happen. But here I am again, and I'm going to begin by sharing some of my most recent experiences.

Two weeks ago, I returned from the land of La Primavera, Guatemala, where I had the opportunity to travel with the Guatemala Human Rights Commission and 14 beautiful women from across the United States to learn more about the situation of violence against women, in particular, the femicide that is taking place there. As with most immersion trips or international delegations, it is easy to get caught up in the busyness of every day life upon returning to the U.S. and simply put on the back burner everything that was heard or witnessed. In the following days/weeks, I am going to attempt to keep the memory of the women whose stories we heard alive by sharing small experiences that struck me throughout that powerful and empowering week.

It is impossible to understand Guatemala's present without looking too at its history- the 36 year civil conflict, relations between indigenous communities and Ladinos, land rights struggles, US involvement in the region, etc. This is a long and complex history of periods of spring but also long periods of winter.

On the first evening of the delegation, we met someone who was able to give us a glimpse into this history. Jennifer Harbury is a graduate from Harvard law who journeyed to Guatemala during the civil war to witness to and document human rights abuses taking place. It was during this time that she met her husband, Efrain Bamaca Velasquez, a Mayan resistance leader. Efrain was captured by the Guatemalan government and Jennifer was told that he had been killed in combat. Jennifer later learned that he was in fact still alive and being tortured for information. In attempting to seek justice, Jennifer went on several hunger strikes, the longest being 32 days in Guatemala. After two and a half years of misinformation, she learned her husband was murdered by key military officials who were also on CIA payroll as paid informants.

As Jennifer began to give us a glimpse into her life and the immense struggles she has had to deal with over the past 18 years, I was overcome by anger and grief at the involvement and complicity of the U.S. government in cases such as this. I was also moved by Jennifer's courage and her willingness to continue fighting for justice despite overwhelming odds. Many of those who have sought to help her in this case have been threatened or killed, and as Jennifer said, "Everyone is under fire."

Jennifer pointed out to us that the violence of the past is closely connected to the violence that exists today against women- "the manner of mutilations are exactly the same as what we saw in the 1980s." The military developed very disturbing sexual preferences that are now passed on to gangs, who are trained to kill people in the most gruesome ways, using barbaric methods of intimidation.

When we asked Jennifer what she thought we could do, she had a few suggestions. She emphasized the importance of supporting human rights defenders through accompaniment and also urging the Attorney General of Guatemala to push the 10 paradigmatic war crimes cases forward. For more information about Jennifer Harbury's case, sponsored by GHRC, please see http://www.ghrc-usa.org/Resources/UrgentActions/bamaca_case/action_center.htm