Guatemalan Activist Honored
for Human Rights Achievements
By Brent Latham
GUATEMALA - A Guatemalan human rights
activist has been recognized by the advocacy
organization Human Rights First, which cited
his lifelong struggle for human rights for
indigenous people in his native country.
Jesus Tecu has been awarded the Roger
Baldwin Medal of Liberty for his efforts to
promote human rights for Guatemala's
indigenous Maya community, and bring an end
to impunity for perpetrators of genocide
during the country's gruesome decades-long
civil war.
Tecu was chosen from among dozens of
nominees for the results of his work, and
his determination in the face of
overwhelming obstacles, says Andrew Hudson,
a senior associate at New York-based Human
Rights First.
"They consider a criteria like the
effectiveness of the activist in terms of
advancing human rights, the distinctiveness
of their work, security risks they have
faced, and the degree to which the award
would help them," he said.
Hudson says a recent increase in threats and
violence against Guatemalan activists
contributed to the decision to honor Tecu.
He says Tecu was also chosen for his
perseverance in pursuing justice, after
having witnessed the slaughter of much of
his family by agents of the Guatemalan
military during the civil war in the early
1980s.
"His story is incredibly compelling, the
fact that as a child he witnessed the murder
of his family in one of the worst massacres
of the Guatemalan genocide, the Rio Negro
massacre," he said. "The fact that he was
then enslaved for a couple years by the very
perpetrators that carried out the massacre.
And the fact that after all of this he
wasn't driven t revenge but the cruelty that
he witnessed motivated him into seeking
justice for the genocide that was
committed."
Hudson says Tecu has played a key role as a
witness against human rights violators both
in Guatemala and in international courts.
Tecu says that as a result of his work with
indigenous communities in the central
Guatemalan province of Alta Verepaz, he
continues to receive death threats against
him and his family, which he believes come
from the alleged perpetrators of civil war
era massacres.
He says ultimately all human rights
activists in Guatemala are fighting for
justice and wish to see to those who
committed crimes during the country's civil
war punished and imprisoned.
Tecu adds that the award will strengthen his
activities in the Mayan community of Rabinal.
Tecu heads several organizations which work
in the fields of education and empowerment
for indigenous peoples in the region.
Alta Verapaz, home to a large concentration
of indigenous Mayan people, and the scene of
numerous massacres during the civil war, is
among the poorest and least developed
departments of Guatemala. |
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