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Holly's News From Washington
A DARK HISTORY
When I got my start in the international human rights movement in the late 1970s, Guatemala was the country I cared the most about. For the first 20 years of my career, I worked to try to deny U.S. military and police aid to the Guatemalan Government. The reason was clear: in those days the Guatemalan army and police were vicious death squads, responsible for hundreds of thousands of murders. The victims included university students, democratic political figures, human rights activists, and, overwhelmingly, Mayan children, men and women.
I remember vividly when the death squads killed a beloved human rights activist, Myrna Mack Chang. Myrna was an anthropologist who worked closely with Guatemala’s indigenous communities. Myrna told the world about the destruction of their homes and villages by the army, which was pursuing a scorched earth counterinsurgency war against a home-grown rebel movement. A military death squad captured Ms. Mack, tortured and murdered her. The year was 1990.
HOPE FOR THE FUTURE
Myrna Mack’s sister, Helen Mack Chang, devoted her life to pursuing justice for Myrna. Thanks to her efforts, the Guatemalan courts tried two army generals and a colonel for her sister’s murder – the highest ranking officers to be tried for human rights abuses. Helen Mack’s devotion to her sister’s memory took another form: in 2010 she was appointed by the Guatemalan Government to head up a United Nations-sponsored commission to recommend measures to professionalize and reform the police. The current government has adopted many of them.
International Justice Mission has been very heartened by the government’s response to recommendations we made, in collaboration with the Guatemalan prosecution service and UNICEF, on best practices for investigating and prosecuting sexual abuses against children. In spring of 2013, these protocols were formally adopted as official government practice by the Attorney General and the Supreme Court. IJM is now training prosecutors across the country in how to gather evidence, interview victims and effectively prosecute sexual assault of children in ways that do not re-traumatize and offer the best hope for perpetrator accountability.
A CURRENT PROBLEM – AND A SOLUTION
But we’ve found that lack of police capacity remains a major impediment to effectively deterring sexual crimes against kids by bringing perpetrators to account. An IJM study in Guatemala found that out of 33,000 complaints of sexual assault in a four year period, nearly 95% of cases never even reached a verdict – neither a conviction nor an acquittal. The study shows that the vast majority of cases simply fizzle out because of lack of police investigative capacity.
The Guatemalan government hopes to address the problem by designating and training special sexual assault units. IJM has been asked to train them, and our team in the field is very eager to do so. But the police need 400-500 additional staff to address the need across Guatemala, and there are currently only 93 officers designated. Guatemala needs help from its major donors to address the scourge of sexual assault.
I’m happy to say that good friends in the U.S. Congress are helping. Last week, Representatives Peter Roskam (R-IL) and Jim McGovern (D-MA) and Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) circulated a letter to Secretary John Kerry in the House and Senate for co-signature. The letter asks Secretary Kerry to find resources to help Guatemala stand up the needed sexual assault units.
I never thought I’d see the day when I would be asking Congress to press the State Department to fund the Guatemalan police. Things have changed very greatly. Now, thanks to the heroism of the Mack sisters and many other Guatemalans, the police are potentially a source of protection, rather than abusers themselves. I am so glad that after 30 years in the international human rights movement, I get to work to secure U.S. foreign assistance for the Guatemalan police.