Gladys Monterroso's Story

Sunday August 2, 2009 6pm
Guatemala City, Guatemala

Gladys came to meet us today and to share her unbelievable story with us. Gladys is a lawyer, professor and wife to Sergio Morales, Guatemala's Human Rights Ombudsman.

On the morning of March 25, 2009 she was scheduled to meet colleagues for a work-group breakfast which is common among her colleagues. She had received a call inquiring about her textbooks which are sold on consignment. She told the caller she was busy but would be able to step out of the breakfast to meet and discuss the textbooks.

She retold the story in such vivid details with tears in her eyes and at times unable to continue it was as though it happened yesterday, the pain is still raw.

She recalls walking out of the restaurant to meet the girl who called about the textbooks, after that meeting she was walking back to the restaurant and remembers seeing men in hoods. She did not think anything of it as it was Holy Week and college students usually don hoods and ask for money during this time as it is a ritual.

She was then thrown into the floor well of an SUV, and she asked why they were doing this? They put a gun to her head and were screaming obscenities. She says she remembers driving around for a while and then they fed her pills. They made her drink liquor. She felt woozy, she was burned with cigarettes and brutally raped and beaten. She was raped, beaten,and burned. This ordeal lasted about 12 hours. She was then taken somewhere and thrown out of the truck.

She heard a man's voice and was terrified that she would be raped again. She realized that she had no clothing on and that the man was trying to help her. She asked to use a phone, the man wanted to call the police, she just wanted to call home. She said she spoke with her daughters but they were so upset that they got the address wrong of where she was. She waited a long time and then called again. Finally someone came to get her.

This is where the debacle that is the investigative system in Guatemala begins. To this day there has been no successful progress in her case. What has occurred is shameful. There has been no investigation into the only real lead in her case. The license plate of the SUV that the men used to take her belongs to the mother of one person who is known to be part of a group of kidnappers. Why has this person not been apprehended? The Office of Crimes Against Women still has no information about her case....but it happened in March? How long does it take to drive the information across town?

Gladys has been interrogated by the police, her phones and her families phones have been tapped. Her case has been transferred. The ONLY witness who was smart enough to look at the car that dumped her on the side of the road is now being protected. As is Gladys, she travels everywhere with 2 men who are there to protect her. Her freedom is gone.

Meanwhile she has had to travel to the US to get HIV, STD testing because the Guatemalan system is unreliable. She is "privileged" and she realizes that and that is part of the reason why she is speaking out. Every person should see justice when they are violated. Proper procedures should be followed. That is an unheard of concept in Guatemala as there is no proper training and women are highly disregarded.

In June of this year the CICIG (see my initial post) released all of the details on Gladys' case including information about her medical testing and her genitalia. How is that a part of the process? How can that help her case? She is mortified, but determined that her kidnappers will be brought to justice. We can support her by contacting the International Commission on Human Rights and demanding justice.