Guatemalan soldiers to answer civil war sexual slavery charges in historic trial
Source: Guardian
Guatemalan soldiers to answer civil war sexual slavery charges in historic trial
For the first time ever, sex slavery will be prosecuted where the war crime took
place, 30 years after 11 Mayan women from Sepur Zarco were raped and enslaved
Nina Lakhani in Guatemala City
Monday 1 February 2016 15.08 GMT
First the army came for the men. Fifteen Mayan peasant leaders in the tiny hamlet of Sepur Zarco in eastern Guatemala were seized and killed or forcibly disappeared.
A few weeks later, they came back for the women. Soldiers raped them in front of their children, burned down their houses and crops, stole their meagre belongings and made them move into shacks outside the nearby military base.
Every two or three days, each woman was made to report for 12-hour shifts at the base where they were forced to cook, clean and submit to systematic rape, often by several soldiers.
It was 1982, one of the bloodiest years of the countrys civil war as counter-insurgency operations against ethnic Mayans intensified under the rule of the military dictator and evangelical Christian, Efraín Ríos Montt.
More than 30 years later, two former military officers will finally face charges of sexual and domestic slavery and forced disappearance in a landmark trial which opens on Monday.
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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/29/guatemala-military-sex-slavery-trial-civil-war-sepur-zarco
This article was posted today by DU'er Eugene, in the Latin America forum:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/110847247
Hope to hear more about the story, hope the current government will give these women the respect they deserve.
Thanks to Eugene.
Judi Lynn
(160,621 posts)Guatemala military sexual violence trial starts
2 hours ago
A trial has begun in Guatemala of two ex-military officers for human rights abuses against indigenous women during the country's long armed conflict.
Francisco Reyes and Heriberto Valdez are accused of allowing the rape and abuse of 11 women at the Sepur Zarco military base in the 1980s.
The UN says rape was used as a weapon of war by the Guatemalan military.
Such an offence has never before been tried in the country where the crimes occurred.
More:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-35468034
Judi Lynn
(160,621 posts)Decades After They Were Forced To Be Sex Slaves, These Women Are Fighting Back
by Beenish Ahmed Feb 2, 2016 10:49 am
In 1982, a group of Mayan men in the small Guatemalan village of Sepur Zarco filed for legal titles to win rights to the land they had famed and lived on for years. They were abducted by the military.
A few weeks later, the soldiers came for their wives. After burning down their houses and crops, and stealing their belongings, the soldiers forced 11 women to live in shacks outside a nearby military base. For the next 10 months, they were forced to cook, clean, and submit to rape for shifts of 12 hours at a time. Four of the women fled into the mountains only to see their children die in the extreme conditions. The others remained in captivity for the next six years.
Now, 30 years later, the women who are now in their 70s and 80s are having their day in court. One of them has died since they initially recorded their testimonies in 2012.
On Monday, the women gathered in a Guatemalan court to seek justice against two of their abusers. Esteelmer Reyes Girón, a former base commander, and former regional military commissioner Heriberto Valdez Asij, are accused of crimes against humanity perpetrated during the countrys bloody 36-year civil war.
More:
http://thinkprogress.org/world/2016/02/02/3745014/guatemala-sexual-slavery/
LiberalLovinLug
(14,176 posts)The legacy of Ronald Reagan, and George Bush. This includes El Salvador, and Honduras as well.