The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project has posted on social media:
“Last week and this week #PBI accompanied Mirtala and Marta Hernandez Agustín to hearings of the discussion of the case of the enforced disappearance of their sister #LuzLeticia 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.”
Video still from Telediario news report.
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).
