Sepur Zarco case: The Guatemalan abuelas

‘Las Abuelas’: How a Group of Sexual Slavery Survivors in Guatemala Won a Historic Legal Victory

Episode Description:

Hey, it’s Kevin here. Before we jump in I’d like just to give you all a quick Trigger Warning: This episode contains discussions of violence against minorities, and other content that some people may find disturbing. Please check the show notes for more detailed descriptions and take care of yourself.

During the 36-year-long Guatemalan civil war, indigenous women were systematically raped and enslaved by the military in a small community near the Sepur Zarco outpost. What happened to them then was not unique, but what happened next, changed history.

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Cold Opening:

Hey, it’s Kevin here. Before we jump in I’d like to just give you a quick Trigger Warning: This episode contains discussions of violence against minorities, and other content that some people may find disturbing. Please check the show notes for more detailed descriptions and take care of yourself.

From 2011 – 2016, 15 women survivors fought for justice at the highest court of Guatemala. The groundbreaking case resulted in the conviction of two former military officers of crimes against humanity and granted 18 reparation measures to the women survivors and their community. “The abuelas” of Sepur Zarco, as the women are respectfully referred to, are now waiting to experience justice. Justice, for them, includes education for the children of their community, access to land, a health-care clinic, and such measures that will end the abject poverty their community has endured across generations.

[Cue intro music]

What is going on everyone? This is the LEO podcast… where we talk about various educational topics… especially those impacting the Latin American community.

For today’s episode, we’ll be talking about how a group of sexual slavery survivors in Guatemala known as ‘Las Abuelas’ won a historic legal victory and the history that led them to this point.

A large portion of the information in today’s episode is directly from an article published on the unwomen.org website and will be linked in the show notes.

If you’re listening to this episode on the day that it’s released, then that means today is Monday, October tenth. And if you want early access to episodes and bonus content, then head over to our patreon.com/latinamericaneo and become part of our Palomitas community!

But if you’re not a patron yet, no worries! You can still enjoy this episode. It’s packed with great content.

So, sit back, relax, and enjoy!

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Topic 1:

In order to understand the history behind what led to ‘Las Abuelas’ demand for justice we first have to understand the timeline of the conflict and go over some Guatemalan history.

Let’s begin with The Guatemalan internal armed conflict that dates back to 1954 when a military coup ousted the democratically elected President, Jacobo Arbenz, and which you might recall we went over extensively in episode #51 titled “Bananas: The 1954 US-Led Coup In Guatemala”.

During this year a military coup led by Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas ousted the democratically elected President, Jacobo Arbenz. Castillos then proceeded to reverse land reforms that benefited poor farmers who were mostly indigenous and even going as far as removing voting rights for illiterate Guatemalans for years to come and triggering 36 years of armed conflict between the military and left-wing guerrilla groups at the cost of more than two hundred thousand lives. The majority of those killed eighty-three percent were indigenous Maya people.

And so in 1960 armed conflict broke out between the left-wing guerrilla groups and the military forces, characterized by abductions, sexual violence, killing, and dumping of bodies in mass graves. Access to land was a vital factor at the heart of the conflict, and the majority of the victims were indigenous.

Then in 1970 following a brief restoration of civilian rule under president César Méndez, military-backed Carlos Arana was elected as President, and as a result violence against guerilla groups and indigenous communities escalated.

In 1982 General Efrain Rios Montt annulled the 1965 Constitution, dissolved Congress, and formed local civilian defense patrols alongside the army to reclaim guerilla territory.

In 1985 a new constitution was drafted and democratic elections for president resumed.

In 1994 UN-mediated peace talks began, and a strong coalition of women’s groups was included in the formal peace process through a formal consultation body. An estimated 200,000 people had been killed or disappeared in the conflict, 83 percent of the victims were indigenous, leaving some 50,000 widows and 500,000 orphans.

In 1996 Under the presidency of Álvaro Arzú, the Guatemalan peace accords were signed, ending the 36-year-long conflict. The Guatemalan peace accords contain 28 commitments to advance women’s rights, particularly those of indigenous women.

What happened in 1982 is key, the military set up a rest outpost in Sepur Zarco. The Q’eqchi leaders at the time were seeking legal rights to their land. The military ended up retaliating with forced disappearance, torture and killing of indigenous men, and rape and slavery of the women.

According to one of the Abuelas Maria Ba Caal “[they] were forced to take turns… if [they] didn’t do what they told [them] to, they would kill [them]”

Maria also explains that they burned their houses and that they didn’t go to the Sepur Military base rest outpost by choice instead they were forced to. They accused them of feeding the guerillas even though they didn’t know them.

For years afterward, Maria Ba Caal and other women who were enslaved by the military were shunned by their own communities and called prostitutes. Guatemala’s civil war was not only one of the deadliest in the region, but it also left behind a legacy of violence against women.

In May 2012, the Fundación de Antropología Forense de Guatemala [the anthropological and forensic foundation of Guatemala] exhumed 51 bodies of indigenous peoples from this site, killed and buried in mass graves by the Guatemalan military. The evidence from Tinajas was one of the turning points in the Sepur Zarco case.

Paula Barrios, who heads Mujeres Transformando el Mundo (Women Transforming the World) explained that the indigenous communities living around the area believed that more than 200 men were brought here and never seen again.

Some families heard and came to the site, hoping to find their lost ones. Women from the Sepur Zarco community came and cooked for the crew. For four days they dug and dug but didn’t find any bodies. The anthropologists said that the next day would be the last day. They ended up finding the first body the next day.

In 2011, 15 women survivors of Sepur Zarco—now respectfully called the abuelas(grandmothers)—took their case to the highest court of Guatemala, with the support of local women’s rights organizations, UN Women, and other UN partners.

After 22 hearings, In 2016, Judge Iris Yassmin Barrios Aguilar, president of the High-Risk Tribunal of Guatemala—who had also presided over the trial that found Efraín Ríos Montt, the war’s murderous dictator, guilty of genocide—found in favor of the abuelas, and convicted two of their captors of crimes against humanity on counts of murder, rape, and slavery. This marked the first time in history that a tribunal found its own citizens guilty of sexual enslavement. (Barrios Aguilar, like several other Guatemalan judges known for fighting corruption, is rumored to be in exile outside the country.)

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The abuelas fought for justice and reparations not only for themselves but for change that would benefit the entire community. The court sentence promised to reopen the files on land claims, set up a health center, improve the infrastructure for the primary school and open a new secondary school, as well as offer scholarships for women and children—measures that can lift them out of the abject poverty they continue to endure.

As part of the reparation measures, civil society organizations worked with the Guatemalan Ministry of Education to develop a comic book for children, which narrates the history of Sepur Zarco. They agreed that the book would be distributed in secondary schools across Guatemala City, as well as in the municipalities of the Alta Verapaz area.

Only one of the 11 surviving abuelas who fought for the groundbreaking case has a home in Sepur Zarco. Most of the others live in the surrounding communities of San Marcos, La Esperanza, and Pombaac in makeshift homes. There’s a small plot of land behind the women’s center that’s now under construction, which has been promised to the abuelas for building their homes.

Out of all the reparation measures, land restitution is perhaps one of the most critical ones, but difficult to implement since much of the land being claimed is held privately. The President has to appoint an institution and the Ministry of Finance has to provide a budget to the institution to buy the privately held land and then redistribute it.

One reparation measure that has had some traction is the free mobile health clinic, which serves 70 – 80 people every day. Each community takes turns taking care of the clinic. Many women from the community have received medicine. There are, however, some illnesses they cannot treat there, so they wish there was a hospital that could cure everything.

Las abuelas don’t deny receiving justice but are now asking for education for their children and grandchildren so that the youth in the community have opportunities and aren’t like their elders who could not study. Their claims are with the government. According to them “[They] waited for many years for justice, now [they] have to wait for reparations.”

The Sepur Zarco case is about justice, as shaped by women who endured untold horror and loss, and today they are demanding to experience that justice in their everyday lives.

According to Maria Ba Caal one of the abuelas “[they] gave everything to get justice,” [they just]want to see the results before [they] die.”

With these reparations, everyone is involved—the ministry of education, the ministry of health, the justice system, the land rights institutions … at least 21 institutions are involved in the reparations process. What you want is to create the conditions for non-repetition of these crimes, and you can only achieve that by transforming the way these institutions see their role in ensuring that all people are protected.

Conclusion/Closing remarks:

And While it is true that the abuelas do not have as much energy as they used to; they do still continue to share their story. Last year, together with Mujeres Transformando el Mundo and Guatemalan journalist Sandra Sebastián, they published their stories in a book of testimonies and photographs called Donde nace el sol y no muere: Relatos de vida de las abuelas del caso Sepur Zarco— or Where the Sun Is Born and Doesn’t Die: Life Stories of the Grandmothers of the Sepur Zarco Case. In the book, the 15 women share details of their childhoods, their experiences during the war and what their lives have been like in the wake of its destruction and trauma.

The abuelas even travel often, presenting to academics, human rights defenders, journalists and educators.

THE END

That’s all for today on the LEO podcast. I’m Kevin Muñoz and as always feel free to send me a message with your thoughts or with any interesting topic that you’d like to see covered.

and for those of you on Patreon, I’ll see you there.

Otherwise, I’ll see you all in next week’s episode!

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