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The Military Diary Case Speaking Tour: Insisting & Persisting

Posting Date(s)
Date
Location
Faculty Lounge, UPEI
Price
Free

Wendy Mendez, plaintiff and witness in the emblematic Military Diary case (Caso Diario Militar), will join the Maritimes-Breaking the Silence Network (BTS) for a tour of the Maritimes provinces during the spring of 2022. This will be the first speaking tour that BTS has held since the beginning of the pandemic, and we are so excited to welcome you!

Come learn about the state of transitional justice and what is at stake for families seeking truth and justice decades after the crimes were committed and the peace accords were signed. We will also explore the connections and implications this has for us here in Canada.

Who is Wendy Mendez?
Wendy is the daughter of Luz Haydee Mendez Calderon who was forcibly disappeared by the Guatemalan Army on March 8, 1984. Wendy is a human rights activist, popular educator, co-founder of HIJOS Guatemala, petitioner before the Inter-American Human Rights Court in the Military Diary case (Gudiel Alvarez vs. Guatemala), and plaintiff in the Military Diary case in the national courts of Guatemala.

What is the Military Diary Case?
The Military Diary is a document that was stored in the Guatemalan Military Archives that details the forced disappearance, torture, and murder of 183 people, including details such as the date and location of their kidnapping by state security forces. The diary contains photos and government intelligence on individuals, including children, who were considered "internal enemies" of the state during the Guatemalan Internal Armed Conflict (IAC). Many of the 183 individuals in this document remain missing to this day.

This case is emblematic of the human rights abuses and mechanisms used by the state in Guatemala during the IAC against civilians. The families bringing the face forward are seeking justice from 13 high-level military and police figures.

For more information, read daily reports from the court room (https://breakingthesilenceblog.com/military-diary-case.../), or an impactful article from Wendy and the CBC (https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/.../guatemala-civil-war...).