Dianna Ortiz

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dianna Ortiz (* 1961 in New Mexico ) is an American nun of the Catholic Ordo Sanctae Ursulae ( Ursulines ). She has been committed to the indigenous population in Guatemala since 1987 and was tortured by the Guatemalan government in 1989. In the following years she fought for recognition of her suffering and later founded an organization herself for victims of torture and against torture.

Life

Engagement with the indigenous people of Guatemala

Dianna Ortiz felt at age 17 to a religious life called and educated at a convent in Kentucky . In 1987 she began her missionary work in Guatemala, teaching rural Maya writing. Members of the Guatemalan family where Ortiz lived were members of the Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo , an indigenous civil rights organization. Ortiz's activity was seen by the Guatemalan government as potentially subversive and a threat to national security. This was of the view "that religious activists of both churches preach to the peasants so that they, provided with new ideas, religious principles and the authority of the preachers, reject the basis of the democratic system." (Office for Public Relations of the Army). A few years earlier, many thousands of Maya had been killed under the US- backed military dictatorship of Efraín Ríos Montts .

Threats, kidnappings, torture

The bishop of the region received an anonymous letter stating that the sisters met with "subversive elements". In early 1989, Dianna Ortiz received anonymous letters calling her endangered and urging her to leave the country. In the fall of that year, she was threatened with rape, enforced disappearance and an assassination attempt, after which she went to a religious center in Antigua Guatemala .

On November 2, 1989, two men abducted Dianna Ortiz at gunpoint and blindfolded from there to a secret prison. She was questioned, tortured and raped. She kept losing consciousness. Later she remembered in sequences of rats, dogs, a knife that she was forced to wield against someone else, a pit in which many human bodies lay, partly dead, partly still alive, on which she found herself lying. She became pregnant and later had an abortion.

A North American who had access to the secret prison stopped the torture and gave her clothes. He took her away in a vehicle. Ortiz took an opportunity to escape while in traffic, contacted the religious center and left the country the day after next.

Reactions

In the USA

The Dianna Ortiz case received greater media coverage in the USA. She herself reported publicly about what had happened to her. A hearing in Congress forced various bodies to comment, including the Guatemalan Defense Minister and the US Ambassador to Guatemala, who tried to defame Ortiz and accused him of lying. The State Department , which asked her to meet, feared that US interests would be harmed and in a letter to her lawyer accused her of violating the 8th Commandment (false testimony).

In Guatemala

In 1994, Guatemalan army spokesmen said Ortiz was a spokeswoman for the rebels who manipulated public opinion. You have mental problems and lie compulsively. There are also no such torture centers. A judicial investigation in Guatemala ended with no evidence to support Ortiz's allegations. Witnesses could no longer be found, medical examinations were delayed and the case closed. Ortiz joined the Guatemalan Human Rights Commission / USA .

Report of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights

A report by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) found that the Guatemalan military and government had not conducted any useful investigation. In 1997 the IACHR sided with Dianna Ortiz, declaring her credible and guatemala guilty of violating various articles of the Organization of American States (OAS). The conditions of detention were found to be typical of the Guatemalan security forces. Ortiz declined further investigation and questioning. The IACHR sent recommendations to the Guatemalan government.

US Department of Justice investigation

In the US itself, the Department of Justice (DOJ) is investigating the case. Ortiz was interviewed for 40 hours. She was asked to replay the dialogues with the torturers with the help of a forensic scientist . Her case was then closed, she was not allowed to see the 200-page report, and the results were not disclosed to her.

Ortiz 'vigil in 1996 and renewed processing

From Palm Sunday 1996, Dianna Ortiz began a five-week vigil in Lafayette Park in front of the White House . The publicity resulted in the government releasing documents, one of which, issued in 1990, stated that "in fact, as alleged, may have been kidnapped by the S-2 Office of Military Zone 302, headquartered in Chimaltenango ." The Clinton Administration received one Letter signed by 103 members of Congress pledging to investigate the matter. Various lawsuits against the CIA , FBI , DOJ and State Department did not produce any results.

A Guatemalan court awarded Dianna Ortiz and other victims five million dollars in compensation.

Later engagement for victims of torture

Sister Ortiz founded the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International (TASSC), the only US organization by and for victims of torture. TASSC's current campaign calls for the repeal of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which it calls the "US Torture Act".

See also

literature

  • Dianna Ortiz, Patricia Davis: The Blindfold's Eyes. My Journey from Torture to Truth . Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York 2002, ISBN 1-57075-563-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1409015
  2. ↑ TASSC
personal data
SURNAME Ortiz, Dianna
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American nun, Guatemalan torture victim
DATE OF BIRTH 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH New Mexico