On May 13, 2026, the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project posted on social media:
“Last week and this week #LuzLeticia to Mirtala and Marta Hernandez Agustín to hearings of the discussion of the case of the enforced disappearance of their sister #PBIaccompanies after 44 years of her disappearance. The accused is Juan Francisco Cifuentes Cano, former chief of the Fifth National Police Corps.
During the first hearings, the sisters of Luz Leticia, Marta and Mirtala, gave their statements. During the month of May, the oral and public debate will follow.”
Then on May 16, 2026, PBI-Guatemala posted:
“This week, #PBI is accompanying Marta and Mirtala Hernández Agustín to the hearings in the case seeking to shed light on the forced disappearance of their sister #LuzLeticia on November 22, 1982. Among other evidence, an expert report was presented on documents found in the National Police Historical Archive that revealed police actions linked to the events.
To learn more about the case and the sisters’ struggle, check out our bio.”
And most recently, on May 26, PBI-Guatemala posted:
“Also, this week PBI accompanied the sisters of #LuzLeticia the sisters in their search for justice for the disappearance of the university student committed to the social struggle in favor of the Guatemalan population.
To learn more about the case and the sisters’ struggle listen to our COME CLOSER podcast in the linktree in the bio.”
That podcast can be found here.
PBI-Guatemala has previously noted: “[The mother of Luz Leticia] Doña Valentina participated in the formation of the Mutual Support Group (GAM), joining her efforts with those of other families in the same situation. It was at that time that the Hernández Agustín family came into contact with Peace Brigades International (PBI), which at that time accompanied the GAM, and which, already in 1984/85, accompanied one of the Hernández Agustín sisters who finally had to go into exile in Canada. Currently, PBI continues to accompany Valentina, Marta and Mirtala, Luz Leticia’s mother and sisters.”
Additional reading
Luz Leticia Hernández Agustín studied at the Belen Institute, School of Commerce and Faculty of Economics of the University of San Carlos.
Verdad Justicia has posted: “Luz Leticia was born on November 22, 1957, the same day she was detained-disappeared, when she was 25 years old. Her family remembers her as a woman, she was a very intelligent, affectionate woman, such a beautiful smile and a hard worker.”
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.”
On the accused, Prensa Libre also reports: “Cifuentes Cano was the director of a police division and worked closely with the Army in counterinsurgency operations during the de facto government of the dictator Efraín Ríos Montt (1982-1983), as explained by the Prosecutor’s Office before the Fifth Criminal Court of First Instance. The ex-commander is accused of the forced disappearance of the university students Luz Hernández and Ana López, who 40 years later have still not been located.”
Additional reading: PBI-Guatemala accompanies family of Luz Leticia Hernández Agustín at remembrance ceremony (April 20, 2022).
