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News > Guatemala

Indigenous Sex Violence Victims Denounce Impunity in Guatemala

  • Mayan Achi women protest against war crimes in Guatemala City, Guatemala, June 21, 2019.

    Mayan Achi women protest against war crimes in Guatemala City, Guatemala, June 21, 2019. | Photo: EFE

Published 22 June 2019
Opinion

A decision of a High Court judge favored former military members accused of sexual abuse and other serious human rights violations durin Guatemala's civil war.

Indigenous Mayan women of rape during Guatemala's civil war during the 1980s, say they reject a ruling made by nation's Higher Risk Court (HRC) judge, Marta Dominguez, who Friday aquitted six former military members. Dominguez argued the prosecution's investigation into the charges of sexual abuse by the solidiers weren't sufficient enough to convict them.

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The judge's decision favors those who were accused of "acts of sexual violence," say the Mayan women along with the Center for Legal Action in Human Rights (CALD), representing them. The decision confirms "her bias in these cases," said CALD.

The former military members had been identified by the surviving victims as their attackers.

​​CALD expressed its solidarity with the Indigenous women who bravely broke their silence to "denounce these acts of impunity."

The victims filed a protection action last year because Judge Dominguez previously had failed to rule on the rape cases "misrepresenting the facts" and "leaving out of the case 80 percent of the victims who demand justice for their families," said CALD.

In 2016, 14 former military officers were arrested on charges of forced disappearance and crimes against humanity, including rape against the women in the case.

Nine former military officers were sent to oral and public trials in July 2016 for forced disappearance and crimes against humanity, including sexual assault that took place at the Regional Command of Peacekeeping Operations Training (Creompaz).

 
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