[TW: Sexual violence].
For the first time, on February 26, 2016, a Guatemalan court convicted two military officers of wartime sexual violence and the sexual slavery of 15 Maya Q’eqchi women 30 years prior. A report by ECAP presented the story of the women’s struggle in Sepur Zarco Guatemala in a book titled Clamor for Justice: Sexual Violence, Armed Conflict, and Land Dispossion. The report provided the background for the legal investigation that allowed the affected women and feminist groups to push forward. At its core, the political violence in the 1980s and 1990s was about land and inequalities. Currently, only 2% of landowners own half of all Guatemalan land. 45% of landowners own 3% of land, and women only own 16% of that 3% – a very small percentage demonstrating their struggle for land rights. In a military base near Sepur Zarco, troops committed countless murders and rapes, burned property, and forced women into both domestic and sexual slavery, leaving behind trauma and social stigma. Brave women pushed past the stigma and brought their case to the court. Through their efforts, two officers were sentenced to 120 and 240 years in prison. The work to bring justice to these women and their families continues. The courage shown by those women has propelled other women in other Latin American countries to come forward and fight for justice.
