I listen to CBC Radio while I drive. For me, it’s one of the best ways to stay on top of what is going on in the world. This morning I was blown away while listening to Anna Maria Tremonti of “The Current”. She mentioned “Dos Erres”.

Stepping back, we have been hearing about Ed Guy a lot around the office lately. World Accord supported the work of Ed Guy for several years as he tramped through Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador doing what he could to help the poor and lift their spirits in a time of war. Another connection comes through Myles, one of our interns in El Salvador. Myles is working with our partner there – ADCASMUS – lead by Marina de Merino Ramos. Marina learned about going forth courageously to work with the poor from Ed Guy.
Ed Guy and Friends.

As many know, Ed spent much of the last few years of his life working with a group called FAMDEGUA in Guatemala in efforts to exhume a mass grave that was a water well before the Dos Erres massacre in Guatemala in December of 1982. More than 250 poor Mayan men, women and children were brutally murdered by the military and dumped down the village well. The details are grizzly and can be found by searching “Dos Erres” or “FAMDEGUA”.

FAMDEGUA is a group of “Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared of Guatemala”. Years after the massacre, they tried to identify the exhumed bodies by clothing, jewelry or other distinguishing artifacts to help bring closure to the families of the deceased. FAMDEGUA also works tirelessly to bring to justice those who perpetrated the massacre and indeed the genocide of more than 200,000. Sadly their efforts for justice have been fruitless as the leaders behind the genocide are still powerful Guatemalans.

This is the information I have been steeping in the past few weeks as I found Ed Guys old reports. So when I heard on The Current that Jorge Sosa, who participated in the Dos Erres Massacre, was arrested in Calgary, this all came rushing back. The news talked about how the arrest was instigated by the US who wants Sosa extradited to the United States so that he can stand trial for lying on his military history on his application for US citizenship. Many others want Sosa tried for war crimes or crimes against humanity. The question remains as to what the Canadian justice system will do. Will we try Sosa for crimes against humanity or simply extradite him to the US. Some aspect of the US legal system prevents them from trying Sosa for war crimes.

I hope this becomes a VERY HOT TOPIC. Listen to it on “The Current” on CBC. I believe the Canadian justice system SHOULD try Sosa for crimes against humanity. The value of the truth being heard cannot be overstated. There are still atrocities like this taking place in other areas of the world like Darfur. The more we talk about it and learn about it the better equipped we become to put an end to such atrocities. Sure, ignorance is bliss but it also leads to…..nothing. As Haile Selassie once said, “Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph.”

Conversely, our actions can have impacts beyond our reckoning, even in places far away. Augusto Pinochet headed a military dictatorship responsible for 3,000 documented deaths. According to Chile’s Truth Commission, his regime tortured at least 10 times that number. Pinochet ruled with impunity from 1973 until 1990, when he retired. This changed 8 years later when a Spanish court indicted him for rights violations while he was travelling in Europe. This act helped spark a sea-change in Chile: a governments fell, victims came forward, and the country began to heal.

What impact could the Canadian trial of a participant in grave human rights abuses in Guatemala have? Let’s talk about it. Let’s generate interest and understanding and learning and be a force for good rather than stand by and let evil triumph.