Above: Disappeared in Chile Demonstration organized by the Association of Relatives of Detenidos-Desaparecidos (Disappeared Detainees). 2009, Santiago, Chile. Photo courtesy of antitezo on Flickr.
Let us not forget the United States, through the School of the Americas the US played a leading role in forced disappearances, Thousands upon thousands of disappearances occurred across the American continent as a whole, and in Guatemala alone there were over 45,000 disappearances, 5,000 of which were of children. Disappearances have been part of Latin American security doctrine since the 60s.
August 30th marks the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, and I couldn’t let this day go by without sharing some brief reflections on the subject. My father – Jorge Alberto Rosal Paz y Paz – was disappeared by the Guatemalan state on August 12, 1983, when I was barely eight months old. This year is the 31st anniversary of his disappearance – that same number was my mother’s age at the moment of my father’s kidnapping and disappearance, and it is my age today. As you can see, August is a month full of emotions and every year, dates and anniversaries take on different meanings. The truth is that each year comes and goes, but not without leaving it’s lasting mark.
On this day we remember those who were captured by armed and security forces, and who were taken and never heard from again. The systematic practice of enforced disappearances was installed throughout all of Latin America under the National Security Doctrine during the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. It’s important to highlight the role that the School of the Americas had in it’s implementation, as thousands of Latin American soldiers were trained there during this period. Thousands upon thousands of disappearances occurred across the American continent as a whole, and in Guatemala alone there were over 45,000 disappearances, 5,000 of which were of children. Today, even though enforced disappearances are not talked about as a systematic state practice like they had been in the past, we must also remember and denounce the more recent cases of disappearances in Colombia and Mexico that are marked by impunity.
While enforced disappearances imply a compendium of human rights violations for the person who is disappeared, they also represent a psychological torture for family members because the disappeared are not dead – but they are not alive either. As a result, enforced disappearances are one of the most horrible crimes against humanity and is a violation that is perpetuated every day that the person does not appear.
Family members, unable to grieve, unable to find the remains, live a psychological torture full of anguish and sorrow each day. I know this because as a family, although we have rescued the memory of my father, my family is incomplete. The truth is that society as a whole is incomplete. In the process of searching, the personal becomes collective; the collective becomes the political. Speaking out and continuing to remember all of the disappeared, is a political decision and an ethical obligation to combat impunity – by not forgetting, we are honoring the memory of the disappeared and saying this happened here.
Bernice’s sister, Muriel, was first detained in June 1974, released on the 26th for about a month, without being charged, she then disappeared on 6 August 1974.
The text on the wall says:
“The Chilean police arrested our relatives. Since then they have disappeared.”
My family was forced into exile in 1985, and since then we have lived in the United States. I could say that until recently, being so far away from other families who are in the same struggle as my family is oftentimes a source of pain and frustration because I cannot be closer, struggling alongside them, shoulder-to-shoulder. At the same time, being part of the School of the Americas Watch movement has been a very special experience for me; there is a space in which we can remember and speak the truth about what has happened. While uprooting me has physically distanced me from other groups of families of the disappeared, SOA Watch has become a community in which I can continue to build spaces for struggle. In last year’s Vigil, I could hear my father’s name being called – one of our many people whose absence is ever present, and Father Roy carried his name on a cross. Where else in the United States will you see a gesture of solidarity like this one?
As a movement dedicated to working not only for the closing of the School of the Americas, but also against militarization and the devastating U.S. Policies towards Latin America, I am amazed more and more every day at the dedication of each one of you. The annual Vigil is held at the gates of Fort Benning where the SOA is located to remember the martyrs is an expression of love and a labor of memory.
On this day it is appropriate to urge you to rescue the 30th of August to make visible enforced disappearances, as many people whose name we call out in front of the SOA are the disappeared, and a number of people within the ranks of our movement are their relatives.
Let us take this day to educate, not just about enforced disappearances as a crime against humanity; we must place disappearances within the framework of the genocide that occurred throughout Latin America. Let’s use the truth of what happened as a tool to confront the silence, particularly to talk about the role played by the United States. May August 30 help us to continue to demand the truth and to honor the memory of the disappeared, and may we do this from whatever space of struggle we are in. Let’s accompany those family members who for years have been demanding truth and justice and continue their tireless search. Let’s do this. Let’s do it because in the process, the disappeared will be present among each of us.