Hola! Welcome and mucho gracias for visiting this blog!
I'd like to refer all first-time visitors to the "About this Blog and Author" section on the sidebar for more general information on what this blog is about and of course, the common disclaimer attached to blogs of this nature.
I want to reiterate the urgency of acting in solidarity with Guatemalans to bring Efraín Ríos Montt to justice. For this reason, be sure to always check the top of this blog for updated urgent actions and petitions issued by existing human rights organizations.
In the entries to come, I hope to fill in a narrative (*) that will help viewers understand the historical and contemporary context in which Ríos Montt was able to rise and maintain his power, but more importantly--and indeed, I should emphasize the primary reason for this blog--to update viewers on the progress of pressuring the Guatemalan Government to see that justice prevail.
I have decided to preface my entries with headers, to minimize the confusion and set the context of the post. Examples of headers include: [Announcement], [Local], [National], [News Update], [Op-Narrative].
Before I end this entry, I'd like to thank:
- Amnesty International's (AI) Program for International Justice and Accountability (IJA) for their support, resources, and updates to help spotlight this issue within the USA and make this blog a reality;
- NISGUA, which has done a lot to spread awareness and activism within the USA through their national speaking tours;
- My local Amnesty chapter AI Group 4 (Seattle chapter) for their consistency and assiduousness in pursuing our Congressional Representatives and Senators to take this issue to D.C.;
- and Dr. Angelina Godoy, Assistant Professor of the Law, Societies, and Justice and Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington, whose knowledge, passion, and dedication to Guatemala has challenged, inspired and empowered a generation of undergraduate students to fight injustice and help affect real, sustainable change in Guatemala.
*Please see 4th paragraph of disclaimer on sidebar
1 comment:
Thanks for all the work you and the others at UW do! This blog is a great idea. I also just want to point people towards the Guatemala Accompaniment Project (http://www.nisgua.org/get_involved/join_gap/). Through the project, people from the U.S. are living side-by-side with communities, organizations, and individuals that are standing up to demand justice for the genocide that took place against them.
Also, please sign an email to the attorney general of Guatemala, asking that he move the cases against Rios Montt and his co-defendants forward: http://www.nisgua.org/get_involved/action_alerts/current.asp
THANK YOU!
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