Guatemala has made key strides in recent years in prosecuting some of the most heinous crimes committed during the 36-year internal armed conflict, which UN investigators say was a genocide. However, hardline military sectors and their allies have led a fierce backlash intended to extinguish those efforts and to silence the victims.
Jo-Marie Burt, who teaches political science and Latin American studies at the Schar School of Policy and Government, for years has been working closely with victims of the conflict and human rights organizations in their search for justice. As a trial observer for the International Justice Monitor, she has documented the twists and turns of Guatemala’s transitional justice process. She has also engaged in advocacy work at the local and international level to help secure support for the rights of the victims.
In mid-June, Burt, who is also a Senior Fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), organized a series of activities in Guatemala City, including a public event called “Justice or Impunity: Victims’ Rights and Transitional Justice in Latin America.” Some 250 spectators attended, including members of the Guatemalan congress, public prosecutors, judges, and diplomats. Dozens of survivors of human rights violations were also among the public gallery.
The event was co-organized with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Guatemala, Impunity Watch, the Association for Justice and Reconciliation, and Truth and Justice in Guatemala, a transitional justice documentation project of which Burt is co-coordinator. Funding for the event was provided by Diakonia.
The event was introduced by Liliana Vilaña, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Guatemala, and Edwin Canil, president of the Association for Justice and Reconciliation, a member organization that brings together victims of genocide from five regions across Guatemala. The Association for Justice and Reconciliation brought charges of genocide against ex-dictator Efraín Ríos Montt in 2000. He was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity in 2013, but a higher court emitted a controversial ruling that vacated the conviction. Canil himself is a genocide survivor, having lost his mother and siblings during a military massacre in 1982.
Speakers included Schar School’s Burt and three others:
- Carolina Varsky, Coordinator of the Public Prosecution for Crimes against Humanity of the Attorney General’s Office of Argentina. She previously worked as the director of litigation for the Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS), where she litigated numerous cases on behalf of victims of human rights violations.
- David Morales is the director of litigation for the Cristosal Foundation and is currently litigating the case of the El Mozote massacre, the largest recorded massacre of the civil war in El Salvador. Between 2013 and 2016 was the Ombudsman for Human Rights.
- Hilda Pineda is a lawyer and public prosecutor. She currently leads the Human Rights Section of the Attorney General’s Office of Guatemala. She was the lead prosecutor in the Sepur Zarco sexual violence case and assistant prosecutor in the 2013 genocide case.
The event was moderated by journalist Marielos Monzón. The Ombudsman for Human Rights in Guatemala, Jordan Rodas, offered closing remarks.
Burt said that the objective of the conference was to highlight the progress Guatemala and other Latin American countries have achieved in prosecuting grave crimes cases, but also the danger of backsliding under pressure by powerful hard-right forces. “Guatemala stands as an example to the world in its efforts to criminally prosecute some of the worst abuses of the civil conflict, including sexual violence and genocide,” she said. “But dark clouds loom on the horizon, as members of the military and others work to impose an amnesty and end Guatemala’s experiment in transitional justice. In this context, we wanted to highlight the role of the victims in these processes.
"Victims I have spoken with tell me that for them, justice has been a transformative process. It doesn’t erase their suffering. But testifying before a court of law, and receiving acknowledgement of the crimes they endured, is profoundly restorative,” Burt said.