Laura Carlsen: 'In Latin America, Because We Remember, We Sow Justice' Laura Carlsen - CIP Americas
go to original April 12, 2014

March 24 was the 38th anniversary of the coup d’etat in Argentina that brought military dictatorship to that the South American nation. The same week marked the beginning of the Movement for Peace with justice Dignity in Mexico, catalyzed by the March 28 assassination of seven young people, including the son of poet Javier Sicilia.

Two terrible events, separated by 35 years, represent the endless struggle for truth and justice in Latin America. It is a struggle for justice for innumerable cases kept alive by the pain of thousands of families. But it’s also, and even more so, a struggle to break down the wall of lies that protect governments - governments that continue to hide the violence and corruption at the core of the system.

There have been major advances in truth and justice movements in recent years. The historic trial of General Efrain Ríos Montt in Guatemala brought to the public eye the horrors of the genocide campaign against the Mayan population. For the first time, the voices of indigenous men and women - victims of atrocities - were heard in a court of law.

In Peru, the rulings against former president Alberto Fujimori in the massacres in Barrios Altos and La Cantuta struck a blow to impunity. In Colombia cases of past crimes have been brought to court, although not nearly as many as should be.

On occasion, judges rule in favor of justice and against the powerful interests that exercise control over the courts. In those cases, international law prevails. Even when shadow powers are stronger than the justice system and historical criminals go free, as frequently happens, the mere fact of making the truth public through the voice of the victims is a major achievement for society.

In nearly all the cases, the investigations and truth commissions unearth incontrovertible evidence of what the survivors already knew firsthand and had to silence for years.

Although the process has not concluded, Guatemala will never be the same since it heard the stories, in weak but determined voices, of Ixchil women who suffered sexual slavery at the hands of the Guatemalan Army during the dirty war. Mexico is not the same since the victims of the drug war spoke out and organized in the Movement for Peace. The survivors may not have broken the system of impunity, but at least they broke the silence.

Today new sources and new discoveries add to the historical memory.

Read the rest at CIP Americas

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