CONAVIGUA Report on Dignity for Victims of the Internal Armed Conflict

One of the goals of CONAVIGUA is to work to bring dignity to the victims of the war. CONAVIGUA created Dignity for the Victims of the Internal Armed Conflict. One of the projects of the program is to build monuments. Thus far, four monuments have been built, two of which were funded by gifts through Global Ministries. These monuments dignify and honor the memory of the victims that were massacred, tortured, kidnapped, or were disappeared and all are built in coordination with the local communities and with the victims’ families.

Dignity for the Victims of the Internal Armed Conflict in Guatemala
National Coordinator of Widows of Guatemala (CONAVIGUA)
2009 Report

The National Coordinator of Widows of Guatemala (CONAVIGUA) is a Global Ministries partner. CONAVIGUA was founded in 1988 as a response to the suffering of women in rural areas amid the internal armed conflict of Guatemala. The widows of CONAVIGUA are women whose husbands, sons, and daughters either were killed or were disappeared during Guatemala’s civil war.

Due to the many atrocities committed during the civil war, indigenous widows formed CONAVIGUA to help meet each other’s basic and urgent needs. CONAVIGUA also became dedicated to struggle for respect and dignity toward the women of the rural areas that suffered from the conflict. The promotion of human rights, women’s rights, the rights of children and adolescents, and the rights of the indigenous population also is a point of emphasis for CONAVIGUA. Since 1988 CONAVIGUA has contributed to the development of damaged towns and has been participating in policy-making on local, municipal, national, and international levels.

One of the goals of CONAVIGUA is to work to bring dignity to the victims of the war. CONAVIGUA created Dignity for the Victims of the Internal Armed Conflict. One of the projects of the program is to build monuments. Thus far, four monuments have been built, two of which were funded by gifts through Global Ministries. These monuments dignify and honor the memory of the victims that were massacred, tortured, kidnapped, or were disappeared and all are built in coordination with the local communities and with the victims’ families.

CONAVIGUA continues to offer accompaniment, legal aid, psychological and spiritual support to the families of the internal armed conflict, particularly during the processes of exhumation and burial, in order to create space for truth and justice.

CONAVIGUA has collected testimonies of the relatives of the victims which have been presented to the Public Prosecutor. These testimonies emphasize the importance and the meaning in the Mayan culture of the exhumations and burials of their loved ones to dignify the memory of the victims. The exhumations and burials are important on the journey toward the construction of true peace in Guatemala. CONAVIGUA also has facilitated the filing of death certificates on behalf of the victims. Support for victims’ families has included psychological and spiritual support through CONAVIGUA’s mental health promoters and through meetings with the relatives before the burials to plan vigils and graveside ceremonies.

The work to exhume has been possible because CONAVIGUA has obtained authorization from landowners to dig for the remains of victims. They have worked with the Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala to do bone analysis and correlate the results with testimonies of the victims’ relatives. In addition, they have coordinated national and international publicity of the exhumations and burial activities in order to raise public awareness.

Plans for the future

In accordance with CONAVIGUA’s strategic plan, they will continue dignifying loved ones through the exhumations, burials, and construction of monuments and broaden the attention to the communities that were devastated by the domestic armed conflict. By means of therapeutic and psychological processes, their mental health professionals will offer psychological and spiritual support to the relatives of the victims, first in the courtroom and later at the exhumation and burial sites. They will also accompany and give legal aid to the relatives of the victims, in the courtroom and at the exhumations and burials, so each victim may have an honorable funeral.

Taking into account the current national situation in Guatemala in which the present government’s plans and strategies do not favor Guatemala’s indigenous people, CONAVIGUA considers it extremely important to pursue justice; civil society must agree upon strategies that, in the not too distant future, will bring justice to the people responsible for the country’s genocide. For 20 years CONAVIGUA has fought day by day to help clarify the facts about what happened during the domestic armed conflict and to find the missing and kidnapped victims from the rural communities.

Here is a note from one group of family members expressing their contentment and thanks:

Although we are far from the city, CONAVIGUA has remembered us, who have been affected by the repression of the 1980s, a time in which we suffered a lot. They have remembered our deceased relatives and shown solidarity with our pain. They have helped heal some of our wounds; by dignifying our dead, they also have dignified us. They have left a reminder of our deceased by raising a monument in memory of our martyred brothers and sisters. With each of their names on the plaque, we will remember this sad history and bear witness to the sad reality of our past so that our sons and daughters can see, know and be mindful of the evil that was done to our relatives so that it may never happen to anyone again.

For information on this project and how you can help support it, click here: http://globalministries.org/lac/projects/dignity-for-the-victims-of-the-i.html