On March 25, the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project posted: “PBI accompanies Nunca Pares during the MP [Public Ministry] visit to the University of San Carlos of Guatemala (USAC). The prosecutor conducted a visual inspection at the sites of sexual assault suffered by several students in January 2020.”
PBI-Guatemala has previously explained: “The Association of Victims and Relatives of Violence against Women in Universities, Nunca Pares, accompanies university students who are survivors of sexual violence.”
“They demand the application of protocols for providing attention to victims of sexual violence in state institutions and the creation of similar structures for protection within Guatemalan universities.”
“Their principal objective is the non-repetition of these crimes.”
PBI-Guatemala adds: “Nunca Pares demands justice for the rapes suffered by several students in January 2020.”
“According to the collective, these rapes were committed by members of the ‘Honorable Committee for the Friday of the Sorrows Strike’, a kind of fraternity of the University of San Carlos de Guatemala (USAC), during an initiation rite and within the grounds of the University itself.”
This article adds: “In Guatemala City, on Saturday, January 25, 2020, around 4 p.m., two young female university students were admitted to the San Juan de Dios General Hospital in an unconscious state, after attending the University of San Carlos de Guatemala (USAC).”
“The girls were physically and emotionally assaulted, as well as forced to ingest an anesthetic.”
That article further notes: “In the hospital and in the Public Prosecutor’s Office, they were treated with delay and stigmatized by medical and justice personnel.”
And Ruda has reported: “The movement demands justice, both from the Public Ministry -MP- and the rector of the University of San Carlos -USAC- Murphy Paiz, for the young women who were victims of different types of violence.”
It has also been reported that: “According to a survey conducted in 2019 with more than 700 students, 89% of women at the University of San Carlos have experienced harassment on campus. 30% of bullies are professors.”
Nunca Pares says: “We fight so that no young student, no woman suffers psychological, physical, sexual violence, harassment and any type of violence in the USAC. Because the lives of all young women matter, we demand truth and justice!”
PBI-Guatemala began accompanying Nunca Pares in April 2021.
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