(Alternative) Justice Spaces: Testimony, Mayan Women In .

(Alternative) justice spaces: Testimony,Mayan women in Guatemala, andEmotional CommunitiesMorna MacleodRadcliffe Institute8/9/2016

PRESENTATION1. Unpacking Testimony2. Context: rape as a weapon of war inGuatemala’s armed conflict3. Four moments of Mayan women’stestimonies of rape as a weapon of war4. Emotional Communities5. Final Reflections

TESTIMONY & CONFLICT:GENEALOGIES Holocaust (Levi, Wieviorka, Celan etc.) Performance Studies: Felman, Taylor, Wake, etc Literary genres: Life histories, memoires, Contested terrain (Stoll/Beverly) Videos & Documentaries, Bhaskar y Walker, etc. History, Anthropology, and Social Science: (oralhistory, etc.) Transitional justice: a contested terrain Testify: (J’accuse Zola, Felman), Publicintellectuals, ethical and truth commissions

POLITICAL TESTIMONY INLATIN AMERICA Therapeutic testimony (Elizabeth Lira) Testimony of struggleo (Auto) Biographies, Memoires & Confessions:Rigoberta Menchú, Miguel Marmol (RoqueDalton), Commandants, traitors, etc.o Novels: e.g. Sandinista Revolution (Cabezas)o The revolutionary struggles of women (Randall)o Social movements: Chiapas and Oaxaca (LynnStephen, etc.) (Quasi) Legal: Truth & ethical Commissions, trials Testify: (J’accuse) mainly indigenous peasants

REFLECTIONS ON TESTIMONY INLATIN AMERICA Political URGENCY (often lives at stake)“Speak truth to power” (from “below”)Both individual & collective (“public intimacy”)Eye witness (seeing)A variety of secondary witnesses (listening,documenting, filming) Always mediated Resistance: legal, cultural, social, etc.

GUATEMALA: GENOCIDEAND ARMED CONFLICT CEH documented:626 massacres42,275 victims (men, women and children)23,671 arbitrary executions6,159 victims of forced disappearanceIdentified victims: 83% Mayans, 17% ladinos Massive displacement: internal & refugees CEH: Acts of Genocide in certain areas

RAPE AS A WEAPON OF WAR Vienna 1993 HR World Conference (UN) Resolution 1325 (2000) women, peace andsecurity Resolution 1960 (2010) UN Security Councilapproved annual publication of groupsdeliberately committing sexual violencecampaigns (“naming and shaming”) CEH: Consultation with civil society (1998)Novel alliance between Maya and feminists:genocide and rape as a weapon of war

RAPE AND TESTIMONY Crime against humanity. Denounce – Never again– To bring perpetrators to trial Risks of publicly denouncing rape:– Revictimising (possibility of being raped againin revenge)– Humiliation and stigma The right to denounce and to keep quiet– Theidon, Ross, JELIN

4 CASES OVER TIME (1983-2014):– During the armed conflict– Commission of Historical Clarification (truthcommissions) 1998 & 1999– Ethical Tribunal against sexual violence ofwomen during the armed conflict inGuatemala– Ríos Montt trial

1. Carmelita Santos(massacres taking place)“I want to speak in the name of all the men, women,children and elders in my village, so that the worldhears of the injustice we re suffering, and that wehave the recognised right that to live on the land andas children of God”. (PPT 1983: 377) Collective“They’ve treated us in Guatemalan as if we werestupid Indians. That s not the case. We have thesame capacities, but we don’t have the opportunity tostudy. They tell us that we indigenous are worthlessand that we re a nuisance for Guatemala.” (1983)

Carmelita Santos “I think these massacres are worse for us women,because first the women are raped and afterraping her, they pull out her tongue, they put outher eyes, they tear away her breasts, andafterwards, they just leaver her dying there. Manytimes we have said –witnessing such terriblesuffering- that we’d prefer it if they simply shot us,but not be killed in this way”. (1983 FEDEFAMconference, Mexico City) “¿Por qué nos matan como chuchos?”

TRUTH COMMISSIONS(REMHI 1994-1998 & CEH 1997-1999) Sexual violence: not from the start (CEH),included later (Yolanda Aguilar) Rape the most unreported HR violation(CEH 2000 Tomo II: 23), Peru First truth commission to includegender from the beginning, but less casesdocumented than in Guatemala Peru: 538, Guatemala: 1,465 Why? (Q for Kimberley Theidon)

Indigenous womenvictim of sexual violence: 1,465 reported cases of rape (CEH) 99% against elderly, adults, youngwomen and girls Rape of indigenous girls:– 27% girls– 8% 0-5 year olds– 22% 6-12 year olds– 70% 13-17 year olds 88.7% cases of sexual violence doc. byCEH Indigenous women

TRUTH COMMISSION TESTIMONYREMHI & CEH Fragments (not complete testimonies)Written word, less directVery few testimonies in 1st personOthers speak for and of the rape ofwomen But it did break a taboo, groundworkfor ethical tribunal

3.EthicalTribunal on sexual violencesexual of women during the armedconflict in Guatemala

Irma Alicia Velásquez:Expert witness on Mayan culture

3. ETHICAL TRIBUNAL 4-5 March 2010, organised by UNAMG,ECAP, MTM CONAVIGUA & La Cuerda Jury: Japan, Uganda, Peru,Guatemala – including Mayan Testimonies, expert witness, “judges” “Juridification”: what justice should look like Caso Sepur Zarco spin-off Video: 5.30-8.00

4. RÍOS MONTT TRIAL Sentence: 10 May 2014 Short video

EMOTIONAL COMMUNITIES Term coined by Myriam Jimeno: Culminating experience:– Esp. work with displaced (indigenous)communities in Colombia– Bringing together the political & the emotional(theoretically & lived experience) Characteristics:– Kitek Kiwe’s activities (identity, denouncing,performing, negotiating)– Collaboration & accompaniment by Jimeno &team (different moments and issues)– Empathy (and academic rigour), moments of

EMOTIONAL COMMUNITIES Academic implications, in situations ofextreme violence: What s left out of academic work by notincluding emotions?How can we researchers remain “neutral” or“unaffected”?Bringing emotions of victims/survivors andresearchers into academic workBreaking with traditional theorising: bringingtogether the emotional and political, circulationbetween people, body, things, place,

EMOTIONAL COMMUNITIES INGUATEMALA A good example, work by Brinton Lykes &Alison Crosby:– YEARS of accompaniment of Mayan women– Ixil photographers,– UNAMG, ECAP, MTM accompaniment andresearch Mayan women raped during armedconflict– Creative “sanación” workshops (art, body)– In Ethical Tribunal on rape/armed conflict– Theoretically: widening debate, dilemmas,questioning assumptions, new ideas/concepts

FINAL REFLECTIONS: Polysemy of Testimony Why so little theorisation of testimonyduring (armed) conflicts? Most theorisation post, linked to memoryand transitional justice The powerful impact of testimony inperson and in video (all senses involved) “For the record” subalternative voices,“history from below” “J’accuse” needs more theoretical analysis

FINAL REFLECTIONS:o Emotional communities reflect the bonds (andtensions) between collective social actors andcollaborators (academics, volunteers, etc.)o Strands of emotional communities in publicevents (1983 Carmelita Santos testimony atFEDEFAM conference in DF, REMHI and CEHpublic presentation of findings , 2015 Ríos Montttrial anniversary UNAM), contribute to long-termtrajectories of emotional communities

CURRENT WORK ONEMOTIONAL COMMUNITIES Working paper (Rachel & Jenny Pearce’s idea),article and basis for book for PalgraveLASA: Otros Saberes: a proposal for a doublepanel ( interest): Colombia, Mexico,Guatemala, Salvador, Chile, and Chiapas/CAPaper in V Coloquio sobre Emociones (ITESO)with example of Sicilia’s book presentation onMPJyD (with Carmen Aristegui) at the Fosas deTetelcingo, Cuautla, MexicoMM: So far Chile and Mexico, not Guatemala(would like to write about the collective strands)

GraciasMaltyox Chiwe

A good example, work by Brinton Lykes & Alison Crosby: –YEARS of accompaniment of Mayan women –Ixil photographers, –UNAMG, ECAP, MTM accompaniment and research Mayan women raped during armed conflict –Creative “sanación” workshops (art, b