Yassmin Barrios and Erika Aifán are judges in Guatemala and judge particularly dangerous cases against influential people. They can only work under police protection. A story of courage and the longing for justice
A Maya Ixil woman came on the stand to testify. She told of a night when army soldiers raided her village. She had fled into the forest with her son, whom she had given birth a month earlier, in her arms. The baby didn’t stop crying. She put a towel over his face so that the whimpering could no longer be heard. It could have given her away.
Judge Yassmin Barrios remembers the witness who testified in 2013 in Guatemala City during the so-called genocide trial. At the time, Barrios presided over what was arguably the most important legal process that Guatemalan society had seen up to that point. “While the woman testified, tears rolled down her cheeks,” says the judge. “On the run she ran for a long time through the forest. Sobbing, she told how she only stopped when she felt certain that no soldier had followed her. ”The woman took the cloth from the child’s face. Her son was suffocated.
World famous after the genocide trial in Guatemala: Judge Yassmin Barrios
Yassmin Barrios led the negotiations of the genocide process for three months. More than a hundred witnesses from the Maya people of the Ixil had their say. In the 1980s, the Guatemalan army destroyed their villages in order to deprive the guerrillas of any support from the civilian population. The trial was important in coming to terms with the genocide and ongoing racism against the indigenous Maya people. The question was whether the former dictator Efraín Rios Montt was guilty of genocide. The general accused came to power in a coup in 1982. This marked the beginning of the cruelest phase of the Guatemalan civil war.
Another witness testified how she was raped by 20 soldiers while her daughter was watching. “Then the twelve-year-old girl was also raped,” says judge Barrios: “This witness also cried incessantly. For the women, the process was catharsis. From a legal point of view, it was particularly important that it became clear how arbitrarily the soldiers attacked the villages. Nevertheless, it was a systematic procedure, so that one has to speak of massacres. Together with the lay judges, I came to the conclusion that it was genocide. “
The figureheads of the judiciary in Guatemala: Yassmin Barrios and Erika Aifán
The process made the judge Yassmin Barrios internationally known. For her there is no doubt: the testimony, the reports of the experts, the evidence and the analysis of many documents left her with no other option. She found General Efraín Rios Montt guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity. It was the first time in the world that a former head of state was found guilty of genocide by a national court. The ruling is considered an international precedent.
Since then, Yassmin Barrios has been a figurehead of the independent judiciary. But there are many influential people in Guatemalan society who threaten and attack them. The judge saw the army, wealthy landowners, paramilitary militias and politicians come together to protest the verdict. “We had pronounced a verdict, but the Constitutional Court at the time overturned it immediately. We complied with the decision of the higher court. I always say: You have to respect, even if you disagree. “
Justice in Guatemala: Judges Yassmin Barrios and Erika Aífan do not let themselves get down
General Ríos Montt never went to prison. When he died on April 1, 2018, he was under house arrest. The original verdict was only confirmed after his death. But by then the judge Yassmin Barrios had long since lost her own freedom. “I am constantly guarded by bodyguards. That’s the only reason I’m still alive. I have seen a lot of very difficult situations. Once I came home in my car and saw a man shoot me from the roof of a neighboring house. I could just open the door of the garage and save myself. “
Yassmin Barrios was attacked and stigmatized. Other female judges are charged with charges and criminalized. The judge Erika Aifán, for example, has to defend herself against many dozen reports. For the past five years she has presided over a court called the ‘Tribunal de Mayor Riesgo’, a high-risk criminal court. “I negotiate cases of exposed defendants. Often they are politicians, entrepreneurs or drug barons. These people have the power to threaten, bribe or attack those involved in the proceedings. That is why we negotiate under special security precautions. “
After death threats: Judges Yassmin Barrios and Erika Aifán are always under police protection
Erika Aifán is a slim woman. Your voice is gentle. Some people think she can be intimidated easily. But the judge appears energetic. “It is difficult to be a judge in Guatemala. The office is not respected, not valued. Day after day we are insulted, discredited, humiliated, threatened. “
The first time she received death threats, she was assigned security guards. Since then, she has been under constant surveillance by the police, around the clock, because Erika Aifán convicts people involved in drug trafficking. It judges influential business people, corrupt politicians, money laundering and judicial officers who manipulate the law. She was also a judge in the trial against Odebrecht: the Brazilian construction company bribed hundreds of politicians in eight Latin American countries in order to win lucrative government contracts. There is talk of $ 800 million in bribes.
“It’s about economic and political power, about the control of the institutions,” explains Judge Aifán. “We often deal with money laundering, amounts in the millions. These people have almost unlimited possibilities, which they also use against us judges. I’ve got seventy criminal charges to deal with. And then there are also reports from the Office of the Ombudsman for Human Rights, the National Bureau against Torture and the Chamber of Lawyers and Notaries. Even the Supreme Court has received several charges against me. “
Bribes of 800 million: Erika Aifán judges corrupt business people and politicians
There are also many charges against judge Yassmin Barrios. She is convinced that the exercise of the office of judge will be made particularly difficult for her and her female colleagues: “In an extremely macho country like Guatemala, it is like an attack on the worldview of many men when a woman presides over a criminal chamber and leads negotiations. Some defense lawyers can’t help but attack me personally for being a woman. They criticize my hairstyle, my clothes, my behavior. “
Yassmin Barrios is sitting on an old, somewhat frayed armchair in her small living room. Her modest house stands on a busy street in an inconspicuous area in the west of Guatemala City. Three bodyguards are drinking coffee in the garage next to the living room. “I’ve been threatened many times in my life,” she says. There was an attack on the courthouse in late 2015. “When the first shots rang out, I was in the parking garage in the basement. We were sixteen people, all waiting for the elevator. There was no way out, and the shots got closer and closer. We hid in a toilet. I started to say my rosary. After about fifteen minutes we managed to get on the elevator. When I got to the negotiating room, I was pale as a sheet. “
Trials after attempted murder: female judges in Guatemala continue despite the dangers
Ten minutes later, she began to conduct a hearing. Soon she stopped thinking about the robbery in the parking garage until she was recently in charge of a case where an audio CD was playing. A statement from a member of a criminal gang was heard. The prosecutor asked: “Why were you there that day?” Attack at that time was aimed at her: “It hit me like lightning. Everyone in the hall – the prosecutors, the defense lawyers – everyone was as quiet as in the grave.
Given the danger, some independent judges are trying to support each other. You have founded an association with which you want to protect the independence of your work. Erika Aifán is also there: “The association is a great help. We maintain friendships that mean a lot to me. “
Independent judiciary in Guatemala at risk: Mutual support counts
The group also takes care of the mental health of endangered female colleagues. Erika Aifán remembers a particularly difficult time. “It was about a court order against me. I didn’t have time to respond to all of the legal attacks. So I couldn’t defend myself adequately. My comrades came to my aid. They shared the work among themselves, investigated the allegations and drafted papers. It was two o’clock on Sunday night. Even so, they kept calling me and saying, ‘Look here, we’ve discussed this and that and emailed you a suggestion.’ So I said, ‘Listen, it’s Sunday. We have to work tomorrow. But you still haven’t gone to sleep. ‘ They laughed and replied, ‘You’re not in bed either.’ ‘That’s right, but this is about my problem.’ So they said: ‘No, it’s about our problem.’ I will never forget that.”
