By Quimy De Leon; translated and adapted by Virginia López Calvo
Miguel Ángel Gálvez Judge presides over the court of First Instance located on the 14th floor of the Tower of Courts in the center of Guatemala City.
On Tuesday October 14, 2014, after three hearings with the Public Affairs Ministry, the prosecutor, the plaintiffs and the defense of two accused military officers, Judge Miguel Ángel Gálvez decided, following an analysis of the law in light of the evidence, testimony and arguments, that army colonel Esteelmer Giron Reyes and former military commissioner Heriberto Valdez Asij will have to attend an oral and public trial.
Esteelmer Reyes Francisco Girón is accused of crimes against humanity in the form of sexual violence, sexual slavery and domestic slavery, murder and humiliating treatment. Heriberto Valdes Asij is accused of forced disappearances and sexual violence.
The historical truth will be heard at a trial in October 29. Until then, both accused remain in preventative prison.
Justice for victims of rape and sexual slavery
Sepur Zarco is a community in the municipality of El Curtain in Izabal. There, a military detachment was built during the hardest years of war and genocide, in 1982 [1]. There, crimes against humanity were committed, rape and sexual slavery of about 20 women amongst them. Some of these women had their husbands and relatives killed or disappeared too.
Women who dared not to allow these crimes to go unpunished, who dared to speak and go through a series of difficult moments and cumbersome procedures, encourage us to reflect and defend truth and memory.
From the first hearing, the women covered themselves in colourful fabrics to face their perpetrators. They did not come alone, but accompanied by several people, by community women, by women’s organizations that make up the Alliance Breaking the Silence and Impunity. In the last three hearings only their representative arrived to court.
While justice arrives
To get into the Tower of Courts is not a nice experience. Whenever I’ve done it, it has always been to accompany a high-impact case, related to human rights violations.
Knowing and understanding how power operates is creepy. Not less than understanding how the justice system and its laws work. Most times I could see beyond the discourse that works to the benefit of the powerful, and through the patriarchal structures in politics, the military, society, religion and the economy. These hearings are landmarks in Guatemalan collective memory and feminist struggles.
[1] The detachment was closed in 1988.
Read previous articles about the Sepur Zarco case here and here.
Women's rights, social inclusion and the media 