MEDIA ADVISORY

Contact: David Imhoff, (510) 763-1403, david@nisgua.org

Event Details: U.S. Speaking Tour to visit AZ, TX, CA, OR, and WA, October 7-24

(Guatemala City/Oakland, CA): Maudi Tzay, a Guatemalan community psychologist with the Community Research and Psychosocial Action Team (ECAP), will tour the United States in October to talk about the crucial role of healing in movements for transitional justice and the healing opportunities that justice holds for survivors of state violence.

For several years, Maudi has provided psychological and social accompaniment to women from the community of Sepur Zarco, who survived state-sanctioned rape and sexual slavery in the 1980s under a U.S.-backed military dictatorship. Earlier this year, the survivors achieved a major legal victory when, for the first time in the Americas, sexual slavery was successfully prosecuted as a crime against humanity in a domestic court.

Ms. Tzay represents the Alliance to Break Silence and End Impunity, the interdisciplinary plaintiff coalition behind the strategic litigation that made this an emblematic case in struggles for justice across the Americas. The coalition consists of three feminist social justice organizations in Guatemala who joined forces to provide the legal, advocacy, and counselling support to make the victory possible.

Maudi will be joined by Becky Kaump, the Guatemala Programs Coordinator of the Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala. NISGUA advocates for an end to U.S. militarism and provides international human rights accompaniment to threatened human rights defenders and survivors of genocide in their search for self-determination and justice for crimes of the past.

“The case of Sepur Zarco is an important one for indigenous women searching for justice,” says Tzay. “We know what it means to be indigenous women in Guatemala, with all of the racism and discrimination that exists. In addition to being a case that centers around women, it also centers around access to justice for the population who have the fewest opportunities in this country. The fact that indigenous women – who have great difficulty accessing justice at the national level – were able to get so far is an example for the whole world.”

On October 8, the tour will join a convergence of over 300 social justice organizations on the U.S./Mexico border to denounce border militarization and to call for just alternatives. The tour will also make stops in Tucson, AZ; Austin, TX; San Francisco, CA; Oakland, CA; Portland, OR; Olympia, WA; Seattle, WA; Bellingham, WA; and Los Angeles, CA.

For more information or to arrange an interview with Maudi Tzay or NISGUA, please contact:

David Imhoff
U.S. Operations & Programs Coordinator
NISGUA
(510) 763-1403
david@nisgua.org