Desecrator of memory

The plaque bears the words that the families of Hector Alirio Interiano Ortiz, Carlos Ernesto Cuevas Molina and Gustavo Castañón requested for its inclusion in order to honor his life and memory. The families of the leaders of the student associations agreed to pay tribute to them within the framework of the settlement reached by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). Part of the agreement, among other redress actions, was precisely to locate this site at the location where the student leaders were captured and ultimately disappeared.

The words of memory flash on the plaque: “Parks, university classrooms, Guatemalan streets, witnessed the unwavering struggle, love, solidarity and smiles of thousands of university students. Because they gave their lives in search of a dignified Guatemala and social justice: Hector Interiano, Carlos Cuevas, Gustavo Castañón and many more were there! Alive today and forever! Carrying with them the history of their families and the noble feelings of the Guatemalan people. Forced disappearance between May 15 and 21, 1984. It was presented in June 2011 as part of the amicable settlement agreement in the IACHR-9326 case.

It remained there for fifteen years until it was desecrated by the hands of looters from a department of the Guatemalan government. The same is true of other memory sites, according to information from the Presidential Commission for Peace and Human Rights (Copadeh). Without informing, let alone obtaining permission from the families of the victims, the hands of the policy of denial by the mayor’s office of the capital, where Arzúism is deeply rooted, sought to erase the memory of the victims of state terrorism.

(frasepzp1)

They placed a colonial eyesore over the already removed plaque in the center of the Third Avenue flowerbed. The new plaque echoes the mission of the Creole noble family that controls the city council. In its absurd text, it talks about the limits of the historic center and the restrictions on the property owned by the alleged descendants of the Habsburgs. Don’t the deniers of Alzuarism skimp on blasphemy in order to claim their alleged monarchical ancestry?

Their arrogance was such that they did not deign to contact the families in any of the places they had desecrated. They did not even inform the authorities who had agreed to their placement of places of memory. This action was not accidental. Nor was it a coincidence, it was part of the political plan of the arrogant and ignorant heirs of the founder of the clan Álvaro Arzú Yrigoyen, who almost fell into the ranks of the murderer Pedro de Alvarado. They were loyal servants of the Führer who planned and went hand in hand with those who committed genocide and barbarity, stealing and desecrating places of memory.

The Guatemalan government must answer what it did with these plaques and why it desecrated these sites of memory. It must apologize to the families of those memorialized in the places where the violence took place. The plaques must be returned to their original places and under no circumstances must the memorial spaces be polluted again. To this day, in many cases, these are the only visible link to those who were forcibly disappeared, atrocious crimes that were planned by the ideologists who support denialism today. At this point, those who planned, ordered or carried out these crimes are as guilty as those who desecrated the memory spaces.