The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project has posted on social media:
“’Our family has been fighting for 44 years to find out the whereabouts of our sister, and we’ll keep fighting until we know.’
Also this week, #PBI is accompanying the family members of #LuzLeticia during the oral and public hearings in the #casoluzleticiayotros case, which is being livestreamed by @verdadjusticiag [Truth and Justice in Guatemala]. Witness testimony, the presentation of documentary evidence, and expert reports are continuing.
You can find more information on the Linktree in our bio.
The trial is expected to continue throughout June and the first half of July.”
From Canada, we are also following the court proceedings via the Truth and Justice in Guatemala Facebook page and Instagram account.
PBI-Guatemala accompanies Valentina Agustín, the mother of Luz Leticia Hernández Agustín, as well as Luz’s sisters, Marta and Mirtala.
PBI-Guatemala had also previously accompanied another sister during the 1980s before she had to go into exile in Canada.
Mirtala further explains to El Salto: “In 1987, my sister was a political exile in Canada, and my mother went to be with her. My sister took a job with the Canadian government, and with her salary, they decided to launch this legal battle. They hired legal counsel from the human rights law firm led by Edgar Pérez Archila, one of the attorneys handling several cases related to the genocide in Guatemala.”
Two years ago, Publico reported: “In addition to resolving their sister’s case, the family is fighting to create a museum that tells the story of repression in Guatemala. [Mirtala says] ‘We want the museum to be built in a military base in the capital, but the right wing is intransigent with this.'”
Photo: Mirtala, Valentina, Marta.
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.”
Mirtala has shared in an interview with El Salto that Luz Leticia was a member of Nuestro Movimiento (Our Movement). She explains: “The organization originated as a militant guerrilla group whose goal was to defend the people against poverty, abuses of power, and the actions of the security forces. In 1980, she had enrolled at the University of San Carlos in Guatemala; she was a certified public accountant and worked at the Army Bank. The university was under attack because many of its members—including professors, students, and leaders—were disappearing and being murdered. That was one of the reasons we believe my sister joined Nuestro Movimiento, which was like an insurgent group made up of young people from the capital who were challenging the security forces both in the capital and in the interior of the country.”
This movement kidnapped Jorge Mario Ríos Muñoz, the 19-year-old nephew of the de facto head of state at the time, Efraín Ríos Montt, on October 14, 1982. The objective was to exchange Ríos Muñoz for a comrade who had disappeared the previous month. UPI reports: “Rios Munoz was rescued unharmed in a shootout between police and his leftist kidnappers in Guatemala City.”
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.”
