PBI-Canada watches the live-feed of the Criminal Sentencing Court verdict in the forcible disappearance of Luz Leticia in Guatemala

Video still: The sentencing court in session.

Yesterday the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project posted on social media: “The Eighth Criminal Sentencing Court has announced that it will deliver its verdict in the #LuzLeticiaYOtros case on Thursday, September 17. #PBI has been accompanying #LuzLeticia’s family for over 10 years.”

This morning, PBI-Guatemala also shared this video on social media of Valentina Agustín, the mother of Luz Leticia Hernández Agustín, speaking to those assembled outside the court before the ruling.

She said: “With all my heart, we thank you for your presence. …We appeal to the 8th Court of Criminal Procedure, Narcotics and Environmental Crimes, which enacts a condemnatory sentence of 170 years in prison for Juan Francisco Cifuentes Cano for the forced disappearance and crimes against the duties of humanity, as requested by the Ministry of Public Affairs and Relatives.”

University student-activist Luz Leticia Hernández Agustín was forcibly disappeared by state security forces on November 22, 1982, her 25th birthday. She became one of the more than 45,000 people forcibly disappeared between 1960 and 1996 in Guatemala. Juan Francisco Cifuentes Cano, the director of a police division who worked closely with the Army in counterinsurgency operations, is accused in her disappearance. Forty-four years after Luz’s disappearance, we ask: where is she?

The live feed of the verdict can be watched here.

Updates to follow…

At 11:40 am ET, Prensa Comunitaria reported: “The court will announce the verdict at 12:00 noon [2 pm ET] for military officer Francisco Fuentes Cano, who is accused of the forced disappearance of Luz Leticia Hernández Agustín.”