Press Conference:
Statement of Denese Becker (Dominga Sic Ruiz)

My name is Denese Becker. I am an American citizen visiting my family in Guatemala. On October 8th, 1972, I was born in the village of Rio Negro, county of Rabinal, in the province of Baja Verapaz. My mother, Magdalena Lajuj Ruiz, and my father, Rosendo Sic, named me Dominga Sic Ruiz.

In 1982, Guatemalan army soldiers and Civil Patrollers from the neighboring village of Xococ assassinated my parents. On February 13, my father, along with 72 other men from Rio Negro, was assassinated and buried in a clandestine grave in the village of Xococ. One-month later, on the 13th of March, Guatemalan army soldiers and Civil Patrollers from Xococ entered my village. My mother, along with 176 women and children, died that day. I survived the massacre by escaping into the woods where I hid with other survivors. My infant sister died in the mountains. I was 9 ½ years old.

After many months of trying to survive in the woods, I was smuggled down the mountain and placed in the care of a nun in the town of Rabinal. From there, I was taken to an orphanage in Guatemala City. One year later, an American family adopted me. Today I live in Iowa with my husband Blane and our two sons.

My first years in the United States were very difficult; I had been torn away from everything that was familiar to me. Gradually, I adjusted to my new life, but always secretly longed to return to Guatemala, even though I did not know what I would find, or if any of my relatives had survived. Meanwhile, here in Guatemala, my surviving family members had been told various stories about where I was. They believed that I was in Costa Rica.

Last year, with the support of my North American family, I planned my trip to Guatemala. Just a few weeks before coming, I discovered that I do have relatives here and that they were very anxious to see me. When I arrived in Rabinal, I was met by a large group of people, including my aunts, uncles and many cousins. We spent last week getting to know one another and learning about each other's lives since the violence. I have been asked what I had hoped to accomplish with this visit. I came to Guatemala because: I am looking for family; I want to learn about my past; I am seeking peace in my heart; and I'm looking for my heritage for the sake of my children.

During this trip I have found that my family and the rest of the survivors of the Rio Negro community face many serious problems. Many wrongs have been committed against us as a people and we continue to suffer the consequences of those actions.

What I remember about Rio Negro--a fertile river valley, plenty of food, a normal family life--no longer exists. I have seen the terrible conditions in which my relatives live today and this has motivated me to publicly state the following:

• I want to help in the struggle to get fair compensation for the losses suffered during the violence, especially our land.
• I want to help my family get out of the extreme poverty in which they live.
• I want to help them with their struggle for justice.

But these goals can not be achieved without financial and legal help.

I know that there are institutions that could and should fulfill legal and moral obligations towards my community.

FIRST: I am not an expert on international banking politics. However, it has been well documented that the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank funded the Chixoy Dam Project, which destroyed my village. Despite the fact that military violence was used to extinguish local resistance to the loss of our lands, these international institutions continued financing the project.

Last February, INDE, the government-owned electric company responsible for the Chixoy dam project, declared itself legally immune to any further reparation negotiations with the community. Two decades after being forcibly removed from our lands, the Rio Negro community has still not received fair compensation for losses.

Today, I am publicly imploring the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank to take responsibility for their negligence--to fund the projects that my community needs to escape the extreme poverty in which they live. I am asking them to help my people reconstruct their lives-lives that were destroyed by the Chixoy Dam project and state violence.

SECOND: As part of the Peace Accords, the Guatemalan Government has promised to conduct a nation-wide war reparation project. The beneficiaries of this project are to be the victims of human rights violations committed during the armed conflict. Last month, the Association for the Integral Development of the Victims of the Violence in the Verapaces (ADIVIMA) submitted a report to SEPAZ on the impact of state violence on Maya Achi communities in Rabinal. I urge the Guatemalan government to fulfill their commitment to compensate the victims of human rights violations.

THIRD: I request the closure of the military base that is located beside the community of Pacux and which continues to intimidate survivors of the violence and is in violation of the Peace Accords.

FOURTH: Due to evidence presented during the Rio Negro trial, the sentencing tribunal determined that nine other ex-Patrollers from Xococ, and an official of the Guatemalan army should be investigated in connection with the massacre. I would like to urge the Ministero Publico to act on this court order.

I also believe that justice should be done for those who planned and ordered the killings of my family and for this I support my community in their efforts to prosecute the military high command.

The remains of my father and the other men that were massacred with him on February 13th, 1982 still lie in a clandestine grave in Xococ. It is my understanding that this grave has been illegally tampered with on several occasions. It is also my understanding that one such incident led to the 1994 arrest of the ex-Civil Patrollers from Xococ. These men were later tried and convicted for a different crime--the March 13th massacre of the women and children of Rio Negro.

I want to know why the Ministerio Publico did not move immediately to have the tampered-with grave exhumed. Why has this clandestine grave been left unprotected from those who want to destroy evidence of crimes? I urge the Ministero Publico to do everything possible to expedite the exhumation of the clandestine grave located in Xococ in which lie the victims of the February 12, 1982 massacre. Like other survivors, I would like to bury my father with dignity.

Thank you.

Denese Becker

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1 Intro
2 Press Conference Statement
3 Newspaper article