Migel Itzep, indigenous K’iche’ Maya and coordinator of the Asociación Movimiento Nacional de Víctimas del Conflicto Armado Interno de Guatemala (Q’anil Tinamit) (National Movement of Victims from the Armed Internal Conflict), was disappeared and tortured by the Guatemalan army in 1977, during the 1960-1996 Guatemalan Civil War—a conflict that claimed the lives of more than 200,000 people and saw some 45,000 others forcibly disappeared. One million were internally displaced and more than 50,000 widows were subjected to ill-treatment by the military and sexual violence .
Since the Peace Accords were signed in 1996, bringing to an end nearly four decades of war and oppression, Itzep has committed himself to pursuing justice, accountability and truth for victims and survivors of the conflict. It’s a role that focuses on the past in order to build for the future.
Miguel Itzep- Meeting with the Grandmothers and Mothers of Victims in Guatemala
“If the violations committed during the conflict are repeated in Guatemala, it will put peace and stability in our country in real danger. We suffered these violations before and we’re not ready to go back to that same scenario again,” Itzep says.
“[So] if the state recognises its responsibility, it must promote and facilitate access to justice, since these are the pillars on which the future should be built; the state was the one that provoked the conflict, so the state is the one that must recognise its responsibility.”
Itzep was involved in the mechanics of the Guatemalan peace process from the beginning, working as coordinator of the National Commission for Reparations from 2004-2005 and with the Programa Nacional de Resarcimiento (PNR; National Reparations Programme), founded in 2003 to handle reparations from the state for victims and survivors of the conflict. Itzep was an advisor to the PNR from 2007-2011.
While it is a positive sign that 40 percent of victims nationwide have received some form of reparations to date, the process has been beset by delays and budget shortfalls due to a lack of political will on the part of state entities and the decree issued by the current government to close the peace institutions and bodies responsible for monitoring compliance.
Guatemala, National Day for Victims, February 2020
Struggles for justice and accountability do not end with peace. Several years ago, Itzep demanded that the Guatemalan government renew the PNR’s mandate for a further 10 years, to avoid the possibility that reparations to victims would be suspended rather than continue reaching the many thousands of people still waiting for reparations. And in 2019, the Q’anil Tinamit coordinator denounced in the media the intentions of both the Guatemalan Congress and government to enact an amnesty law benefiting perpetrators of serious crimes during the years of civil war. Meanwhile, discrimination against indigenous populations—who make up the majority of the population in Guatemala—continues long after the war actually ended. Guatemala’s indigenous Mayan majority made up the bulk of the victims of the conflict, with the state and state-backed paramilitary forces army and security services carrying out many of the violations against them, and yet they are still “excluded from the system,” Itzep says.
“If we do not rebuild peace, change the policies and correct what happened before, it will be almost impossible to restore peace,” explains Itzep. “In the case of Guatemala, the government should dignify the indigenous people who were massacred and victims of genocide. To dignify these victims is to accept the responsibility of the state itself, by facilitating the pursuit of justice.”
After decades of struggle and resistance, Itzep remains committed to the fight for justice and the defence of human rights. He sees the INOVAS network as an “urgent necessity” for linking up Guatemala’s struggle for justice and accountability with similar struggles happening around the world, so that “our people can connect with other indigenous people across borders, and together we can all help one another.”
“In order to receive compensation and justice, we should talk with a unified voice—all of us, to change this world of political and social injustice.”