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Announcement :: Civil & Human Rights |
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Guatemalan Human Rights Defender To Speak Tomorrow! |
Current rating: 0 |
by Meridith
Email: bmmk (nospam) soltec.net (unverified!)
Phone: 352-8721
Address: 610 E. Springfield Champaign, IL |
16 Feb 2003
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Peace Accords were signed in 1996 but fear and unrest are growing in Guatemala. Root causes of conflict (economic inequality, racial discrimination) have not been addressed and impunity for military officials involved in the genocide against indigenous civilian population continues. In an effort to raise awareness about the current situation in Guatemala and inspire participation in solidarity efforts Jesus Tecu Osorio and Jessica Popuvac will give a presentation at the Illinois Disciples Foundation Monday February 17th at 7pm. |
Jesus is a Maya-Achi man who lives with his wife and children in Rabinal, Baja Verapaz. He is a survivor of and eye-witness to the March 13, 1982 massacre of 177 women and children in the village of Rio Negro. This and three other Rio Negro massacres were committed by the Guatemalan Army and paramilitaries, all back by the United States, in part because Rio Negro villagers opposed forced resettlement to make way for the Chixoy Dam Hydro-Electric Project, funded by World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank. Jesus lost his parents and all but one sibling to the massacres. Jesus has received several international human rights awards. He is co-founder of ADIVIMA, a group at the forefront of exhuming mass graves, building monuments to commemorate the lives of the victims of the genocide and was a participant in the legal case of genocide, in Guatemalan courts, against military generals of the early 1980’s.
Jessica Pupovac is a University of Illinois alum who came to Guatemala in April of 2001 to work as a human rights monitor and accompanier with the Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (www.nisgua.org). For ten months she lived in Xaman, a indigenous Mayan community of returned refugees that suffered a massacre in 1995 at the hands of the state. She recently began living and working in Guatemala City as Outreach Coordinator for Rights Action, a Canadian NGO working to educate in North America about global development and human rights issues and raises funds for popular organizations, raises funds for community.
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