Dr. Jo-Marie Burt: 'The Indigenous Women of Guatemala had the Courage to Break the Silence'

[Judi Lynn]

16 SEP 2022 | COMMENTARY

by Josefina Salomón and Sergio Ortiz Borbolla

When 15 Maya Q’eqchi’ indigenous women became the first to win a case against former military officials in 2016, they made history. The officials were found guilty of systematically raping them and subjecting them to sexual and domestic slavery for several years in the Sepur Zarco military detachment during Guatemala’s internal armed conflict in the early 1980s. It was the first time that a Guatemalan court found that systematic rape was used by the Guatemalan military as a weapon of war.

Nearly six years later, in January 2022, five Maya Achi indigenous women secured the conviction of five former paramilitaries for the sexual violence they committed in the municipality Rabinal, also in the early 1980s.

Dr. Jo-Marie Burt, a Senior Fellow at WOLA and an expert on transitional justice who investigated the cases for years and was present at the trials, says that while the convictions marked a historic achievement for human rights in Guatemala and beyond, the women of Rabinal and Sepur Zarco are still awaiting for all the perpetrators, including the intellectual authors, to face the courts, and for reparations to be fully implemented.

We spoke with her about the historic importance of the trials, the impact they had on Guatemala’s Judiciary and the crisis the country currently faces when it comes to punishing human rights violations and corruption.

More:
https://www.wola.org/analysis/dr-jomarie-burt-indigenous-women-guatemala-courage-break-silence/

[Irish_Dem]

1. Women don't kidnap, rape, and hold men captive as domestic slaves.

But we accept it as part of the human condition when men do this to women.

Just men being men.