PBI-Guatemala accompanies family of Luz Leticia Hernandez at hearing 40 years after her forced disappearance

On January 10, PBI-Guatemala posted:

“PBI Guatemala accompanies the family of Luz Leticia Hernandez to the hearing of the first statement of Juan Francisco Cifuentes Cano. After 40 years the trial involving the defendant in the forced disappearance of several people during CAI [internal armed conflict] is opened.”

Juan Francisco Cifuentes Cano is a retired national police lieutenant colonel accused in the #CasoMilitarDiario.

Luz Leticia Hernández Agustín studied at the Belen Institute, School of Commerce and Faculty of Economics of the University of San Carlos. She was forcibly disappeared during the internal armed conflict.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has noted Luz Leticia and Ana Maria López Rodríguez were “captured on November 21, 1982, by security forces made up of elements of the special operations reaction battalion (BROE) and the intelligence service. (SIM) while they were at the address located in block 4, block “E”, lot 13 of the Monte Real II neighborhood, zone 4 of Mixco.”

In 2014, the IACHR also reported on Case 9.111 that includes the disappearance of Luz Leticia, Ana Maria and Ileana del Rosario Solares Castillo.

The IACHR said:

“In Merits Report No. 60/01 dated April 4, 2001, the IACHR concluded that the State of Guatemala had violated the rights of Ileana del Rosario Solares Castillo, Ana María López Rodríguez and Luz Leticia Hernández to life (article 4), personal integrity (article 5), liberty personal (article 7), judicial guarantees (article 8) and judicial protection (article and 25) in conjunction with the obligation to guarantee the rights protected in the Convention [on human rights].

The Commission made the following recommendations to the State: carry out an impartial and effective investigation of the reported facts that determine the circumstances and [their] fate, … the identity of [those] responsible for their disappearance and punish them in accordance with the rules of legal due process…

Adopt full reparation measures for the violations verified, which include measures to locate [their] remains; the necessary arrangements to facilitate the wishes of his family regarding the final resting place of their remains; and an adequate and timely reparation for the next of kin of the victim.

The next of kin of the victim Luz Leticia Hernández Agustín have informed the State that prior to agreeing on an economic reparation or moral reparation measures, the State must deliver the remains of Luz Leticia.”

On August 31, 2021, her mother Valentina Augustine stated: “After 39 years I’m still waiting, to start over, to heal the wound left 39 years ago by my daughter’s disappearance, only then will I be able to take the pause from my life. I demand the judiciary and public ministry where and why they took my daughter.”

Photo from Grupo De Apoyo Mutuo -GAM.