{"id":1329,"date":"2026-03-25T12:53:44","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T11:53:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/centrosira.org\/?p=1329"},"modified":"2026-03-27T13:59:05","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T12:59:05","slug":"emil-bustamente-amicus-curiae-tortura","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centrosira.org\/en\/emil-bustamente-amicus-curiae-tortura\/","title":{"rendered":"Emil Bustamante's wife and daughters are victims of torture"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the request of Evelyn Recinos, the lawyer representing Emil Bustamante's wife and daughters, we filed an amicus curiae brief with the United Nations Human Rights Committee during the admissibility phase of the case. The lawyer contacted the Sira Center following the publication of a special issue of Torture Journal\u2014of which Pau P\u00e9rez is editor-in-chief\u2014focusing on the classification of enforced disappearance as torture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On February 13, 1982, Emil Bustamante Cruz, a 32-year-old veterinarian and rural sociologist, left his home in Guatemala City early to attend a meeting. He said goodbye to his wife, Rosa Mar\u00eda Cruz, and told her he would be home by noon. However, he never returned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the disappearance, Rosa and her two daughters, Flores Mercedes and Ana Isabel, have always suffered the silence of the judicial bodies and the State. This has meant that they have been constantly subjected to a life of suffering.\u00a0retraumatization<\/strong>\u00a0and a deepening of grief, which has worsened over time, and which has caused them moral and psychological harm.\u00a0irreparable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Added to this is the political persecution they have suffered throughout the decades for being considered "relatives of the guerrillas" or "terrorists" in Guatemala, something that has forced them to migrate and the obligation to constantly change their address for security, preventing them from building a solid life project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emil's disappearance falls within a systematic context of disappearances of political dissidents that took place between 1960 and 1996, during the armed conflict that the country experienced, and in which at least\u00a040,000 enforced disappearances<\/strong>. This period is known as the "Genocide of the Mayan people".\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This strategy not only aimed to silence political dissidents of the State, but also to punish their families and spread a message of fear in the communities, acting as a threat to anyone who wanted to go against the government.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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