Peace Brigades International (PBI) – Canada have posted a nice piece about David Hartsough, who passed away recently. David was a human rights accompanier in Guatemala during the 1980s and was involved in the early accompaniment of GAM (Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo – The Group for Mutual Support). He was a lifelong activist for peace and social justice. In the article, there is a short video of David talking of his early days in Guatemala.
“In Guatemala in the early 80s it was genocidal violence against especially the Indigenous population but against everybody who wasn’t 100 percent behind the government… Civil society had ceased to exist, either people were killed or had been disappeared, imprisoned or fled the country.
In that situation, in early 1985, a group called the Mutual Support Group, the GAM, came together. They had all lost family members; they had been disappeared. They came, mostly Indigenous peoples, came to Guatemala City with pictures of their loved ones … walked down one of the main streets … and were chanting ‘where are they?’.
The president of Guatemala got on national television and said these people were all subversives … a licence to the military to open fire. I was with Peace Brigades International, just walking along the street with a little camera, a notepad and some change so we could try to make a phone call. And I had never been so afraid in my life…”
You can read the full piece, with photos and links, including to the video, here, Peace Brigades International remembers the life and activism of David Hartsough.
Categories: Accompaniment, Guatemala, Human Rights, Justice, Solidarity in Action, Solidarity in Action/Guatemala, Video, Violence
Guatemala Solidarity Network 
Post comments here