From left to right, Emma Miolina, her mother and her sister. On their chest, the picture of the disaperaed Marco Antonio. Photo: Radio Media Naranja. Some rights reserved.<\/i><\/p>\n
High
\nRisk Court C recently condemned 3 retired servicemen to 58 years in prison and one
\nsoldier to 33 years for the disappearance of minor Marco Antonio Theissen, and
\nthe kidnapping, torture and rape of his sister, Emma Guadalupe Molina. <\/p>\n
In
\nGuatemala, 5000 children were disappeared during the civil war that occurred
\nduring 1960 and 1996. The individuals sentenced are Manuel Benedicto Lucas
\nGarc\u00eda, Manuel Antonio Callejas, Francisco Luis Gordillo Mart\u00ednez, and Hugo
\nRamiro Zalda\u00f1a Rojas.<\/p>\n
The story goes like this: <\/p>\n
Once
\nupon a time in a country of colours, a girl of 15 years old wanted to change
\nthe world. Thoughts of misery, injustice, and revolution filled her head. <\/p>\n
Her terror was so great that she couldn\u2019t even find the strength to feel anger or hatred towards the people who did what they did. The damage is both profound and permanent.<\/p>\n
Thus,
\nshe decided to distribute propaganda and information about the circumstances in
\nwhich her community were living. It was the worst moment of all to engage in such an act however; the army had
\nbegun the scorched-earth tactic, which meant literally leaving no stone
\nunturned. <\/p>\n
Many victims came from the Maya Ixil population from the province of
\nQuich\u00e9. Emma, militant for a guerrilla organisation, the Guatemalan Workers
\nParty, was detained with political propaganda on her.<\/p>\n
They transported her to the
\nmilitary base in Quetzaltenango where members of the armed forces tortured her,
\nraped her and subjected her to all types of ill treatments in order to destroy
\nher physically and mentally.<\/p>\n
Among
\nthe few occurences in life considered to be miracles, Emma Molina managed to
\nescape from captivity of the 9th day by walking around the base and
\nleaving through a gatehouse. She thinks the soldiers confused her for a
\nprostitute. Her flight came to the conclusive stage with her trip from
\nGuatemala to Mexico.<\/p>\n
The
\nrevolutionary felt victorious after managing to trick her captors. But 6 months
\nlater her life turned around when she discovered that one day after her escape,
\nmembers of the army had arrived at her home. <\/p>\n
As they hadn\u2019t found her, they
\ntook her 14 year old brother, Marco Antonio, with tape over his mouth, as if
\nthey feared this boy could actually ask for help in a land ruled by fear of
\nresistance to the military. He never appeared again.<\/p>\n
Depression
\nbegun seeping through Emma\u2019s life and wouldn\u2019t let her go for more than 3 decades,
\nduring which time she contemplatd suicide on several occasions. She couldn\u2019t
\ncope with carrying the weight of the guilt for her brother\u2019s disappearance.<\/p>\n
Rationally, she knew she wasn\u2019t responsible but this didn\u2019t help much. Nor did
\ninsistence from family members that it wasn\u2019t her fault, as the voice in her
\nhead proclaiming her guilt was always shouting louder.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What
\nhas already been suffered can never be erased. Emma calls it a gruesome mark on
\nher life. Her terror was so great that she couldn\u2019t even find the strength to
\nfeel anger or hatred towards the people who did what they did. The damage is
\nboth profound and permanent.<\/p>\n
The repressors take care of inducing guilt in their victims and they acchieve it, because there was nobody to stand up and say that the victims are right, they\u2019re telling the truth.<\/p>\n
The
\nrepressors take care of inducing guilt in their victims and they acchieve it,
\nbecause there was nobody to stand up and say that the victims are right, they\u2019re
\ntelling the truth. The destruction of dignity was on such a scale that the
\nvictims begun to believe they didn\u2019t even deserve justice. This is what has now
\nchanged.<\/p>\n
In Emma Molina's words:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s It Beyond Injustices Now Upon He added that to claim there was no Emma They inspired her to speak out against what The conflict in Guatemala included the civilian population, which was later attacked without mercy.\u00a0<\/p>\n The There\u2019s Women From left to right, Emma Miolina, her mother and her sister. On their chest, the picture of the disaperaed Marco Antonio. Photo: Radio Media Naranja. Some rights reserved. High Risk Court C recently condemned 3 retired servicemen to 58 years in prison and one soldier to 33 years for the disappearance of minor Marco Antonio…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nthrough this process of justice that I have managed to undo myself from the
\nguilt. It\u2019s the state finally saying sorry. Sorry for what we did to you, the
\nirreparable damage, and we are going to try to repair this by placing the
\nresponsibility upon those to whom it truly belongs.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n
\nhas been such a restorative process that I already feel satisfied with what has
\nbeen done so far.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n
\nthe sentence given to the soldiers, the possibility of telling the truth and
\nreceiving solidarity as a result, and a wave of love and support from thousands
\nof Guatemalans, is what really cures.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nshould be faced in two ways: 1, placing responsibility where it truly belongs,
\nand 2, repairing the soul. Listening to people say they\u2019re sorry, they stand
\nwith you, they are horrified at what the state has done to you goes someway to achieving
\nthis.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nwe have a legal resolution that has ordered the state to search for the remains
\nof my brother. With both national and international support, we will continue
\nthis life-long effort<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n
\nreading the sentence, judge Pablo Xitumul de Paz claimed the accused were
\nresponsible for rape and crimes against humanity, that their crimes should not
\nbe brushed aside in a climate of impunity. <\/p>\n
\ninternal war but only a confrontation between the army and the guerrilla is an
\nunsustainable argument as the conflict included the civilian population which
\nwas later attacked without mercy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nMolina, who refused stubbornly to present her case before the Interamerican
\nCourt of Human Rights, was finally convinced she should speak up about what
\ntruly happened. In this search for persuasion the case of the women of Sepur
\nZarco has a significant influence. <\/p>\n
\noccurred. They went to the tribunal to tell their story of sexual slavery in a
\nhumble community.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nresult of the Sepur Zarco process along with Emma\u2019s fractured the tradition of
\nimpunity that reins over the Central American country. Thelma Aldana,
\nprosecutor, and the UN are participants in the process of democratic
\nnormalisation and justice recuperation.<\/p>\n
\njustice anxiety over the sentencing of ex-president Otto P\u00e9rez Molina and other officials from the state. It\u2019s progress but not enough in the
\nface of what must still be reached in order to re-establish normality: victims
\nare victims and delinquents are delinquents.<\/p>\n
\nare the protagonists of the efforts to return rights that have been snatched
\naway, to recover dignity, to reject fear, to re-evaluate who the truly guilty
\nparties are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"