Cobán, Guatemala
A Guatemalan feminicide court handed down the first conviction on Tuesday against 22 teachers and workers of the Ministry of Education accused of sexual abuse to the same number of girls in recent years in the north of the country.
The historic sentence sentenced Armando Filiberto Vaidez Juárez, alias “El Profe”, to 27 years in prison for sexual rape and sexual assault, for sexually abusing “Eliza”, a 15-year-old indigenous girl, who for reasons of protection of his identity reserves his name.
According to inquiries validated by the court, Vaidez Juárez exercised his local power as director of Departmental coordination of the educational portfolio and violated the minor between 2018 and 2020, As this one was just between 12 and 14 years old. Vaidez Juárez is the first of 22 teachers in the public system accused of 22 sexual abuses of Mayan girls q’eqchi ‘and poqomchi in the north of the country, all represented by the Law Firm of Human Rights with a Feminist Approach.
Lilian Vásquez, representative of the organization and therefore lawyer of the 22 abused minors, did not hesitate this Tuesday to show his emotion because “there is hope for all the girls who have been victims” and thanked the families for allow- “to be the technical voice and a link in justice. We owe it to them, we want to and we believe schools need to be safe.”
“Marcela”, the mother of “Eliza” and who appeared as a witness during the criminal trial, he told the Efe Agency that he expects the aggressor to serve the maximum prison sentence for his crimes and that as a measure of reparation, psychological assistance be provided to the minor and her.
“Eliza” liked to play basketball and with her dolls, but her family said that after the abuse against her character she changed to sad and silent. The family also mentioned that they fear for their health and mood, which is deteriorating every day at their meager 15 years.
THE OTHER CASES
The first to receive and listen to the abused girls were the workers of the New Hope Community, an educational project that seeks to help children at risk in the department of Alta Verapaz, located in northern Guatemala, specifically 250 kilometers from the capital of country.
In addition to this sentence against “El Profe”, three other cases are in the final stages of the trial, pending a favorable resolution for girls and adolescents. Among the 22 minors abused by teachers is “Teresa,” who has just turned 18 years old. “Teresa” was abused for two years at her school and her case is next on the list to conclude and reach a sentence next October.
“I like to paint at night, I can only paint at night, when everything is silent and I’m alone,” Teresa mentioned in a previous interview when showing one of her new paintings, with which she seeks to leave behind the sequels of continued abuse and the art of it gives you a reason to move on.
for the coordinator of Human Rights and Victim Care with an emphasis on violence against women in the New Hope Community, Maria de l’Rosari Pineda, the sentence “is a dose of confidence, like giving a seed to the earth and watering with the first drops of water of something new that is resurfacing.”
The sentence, adds Pineda, is “having done justice, it is an act of prevention, that is to say that we did believe the victim.” Likewise Father Sergio Godoy, director of the project New Hope Community, points out that the culture of silence in Guatemala and corruption have allowed cases like those of the 22 girls.
“There are cases where the aggressor has a certain ascendancy, then there is a tendency to remain silent and seek a pact of silence between the victim and the aggressor. In the case of the teachers, their only reprisals were transferred to other workplaces. “But in the case of domestic violence, it tended to be completely silenced,” Godoy said.
During the first seven months of 2021, the Guatemalan Prosecutor’s Office had registered almost 37,000 cases of violence against women, In addition to 5,389 allegations of child abuse and 5,072 sexual assaults against women. In addition, the Central American country records a daily average of 237 allegations of assault on girls and women, according to data from the Guatemalan justice system. EFE