Ecuador: Human Rights Activists Demand a Museum of Memory

Ecuador's Committee of Victims (CV) presented on Tuesday a legal complaint against the Ecuadorian State for failing to implement the "Museum of Memory."

RELATED: 

A Solar Eclipse Obscured Chile and Argentina

Supported by the Regional Human Rights Advisory Foundation (Inredh), the complaint was submitted to the Constitutional Court (CC) with the aim of having the delay declared unconstitutional. 

For the last 7 years, there has been a lack of compliance with a Parliament's order that mandated the creation of the space to remember human rights violations committed between October 1983 and December 2008.

Human rights activists noted that the construction of the Museum is indispensable to remember crimes against humanity committed during the establishment of neoliberal policies in the country. 

In 2013, the Parliament set a deadline of 90 days to create a museum dedicated to documenting the cases of serious human rights violations initiated by the government of Leon Esteban Febres-Cordero (1984-1988).

The CV pointed out several failed initiatives by state institutions to create the Museum, including the delivery of a building where a torture center operated in the capital Quito. 

"We have the right to collective and individual memory. We deserve a space of reparation for the families of all victims. Truth, Justice, preparation, and memory for the non-repetition of these acts," CV President Clara Merino said.