PBI-Guatemala accompanies family of Luz Leticia Hernández Agustín at remembrance ceremony

On April 19, the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project posted: “Today PBI accompanies the family of Luz Leticia Hernández Agustín in the ceremony of placing of the carnation of the university heroes and martyrs organized by the Center of Historical Memory of the USAC [University of San Carlos de Guatemala].”

Luz Leticia Hernández Agustín studied at the Belen Institute, School of Commerce and Faculty of Economics of the University of San Carlos. She was forcibly disappeared during the internal armed conflict.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has noted Luz Leticia and Ana Maria López Rodríguez were “captured on November 21, 1982, by security forces made up of elements of the special operations reaction battalion (BROE) and the intelligence service. (SIM) while they were at the address located in block 4, block “E”, lot 13 of the Monte Real II neighborhood, zone 4 of Mixco.”

In 2014, the IACHR also reported on Case 9.111 that includes the disappearance of Luz Leticia, Ana Maria and Ileana del Rosario Solares Castillo.

The IACHR said:

“In Merits Report No. 60/01 dated April 4, 2001, the IACHR concluded that the State of Guatemala had violated the rights of Ileana del Rosario Solares Castillo, Ana María López Rodríguez and Luz Leticia Hernández to life (article 4), personal integrity (article 5), liberty personal (article 7), judicial guarantees (article 8) and judicial protection (article and 25) in conjunction with the obligation to guarantee the rights protected in the Convention [on human rights].”

“The Commission made the following recommendations to the State: carry out an impartial and effective investigation of the reported facts that determine the circumstances and [their] fate, … the identity of [those] responsible for their disappearance and punish them in accordance with the rules of legal due process…”

“Adopt full reparation measures for the violations verified, which include measures to locate [their] remains; the necessary arrangements to facilitate the wishes of his family regarding the final resting place of their remains; and an adequate and timely reparation for the next of kin of the victim.”

“The next of kin of the victim Luz Leticia Hernández Agustín have informed the State that prior to agreeing on an economic reparation or moral reparation measures, the State must deliver the remains of Luz Leticia.”

Impunity Watch has also noted that Luz Leticia’s disappearance is among the cases that have Historical Archive of the National Police (AHPN) documents.

On August 31, 2021, her mother Valentina Augustine stated: “After 39 years I’m still waiting, to start over, to heal the wound left 39 years ago by my daughter’s disappearance, only then will I be able to take the pause from my life. I demand the judiciary and public ministry where and why they took my daughter.”

Yesterday, USAC posted: “This act [the placement of a carnation] is considered by the relatives of the martyrs as a right to know and disseminate the truth.”

USAC tweet: “Today’s tribute remembers Luz Leticia Hernández Agustín.”

USAC tweet: “Leticia Hernández’s family remembers her as a woman committed to her family, small but with a big heart to help her neighbor, with a peasant and social conscience.”