[Mitai-announce] 10/9 (Th) 7 pm: Iduvina Hernandez, Guatemalan writer & peace activist

[hemisphere-announce@MIT.EDU]

PLEASE CIRCULATE THIS ANNOUNCEMENT


The MIT Western Hemisphere Project and the MIT Women's
Studies Program invite you to join us for a discussion:
  
  
  Ballots vs. Bullets: The Prospects for Peace in Guatemala
  Iduvina Hernandez, independent journalist & activist
  
  7 pm, Thursday, October 9
  MIT Room 14E-304
  
  Refreshments will be served. 


DETAILS:

Iduvina Hernandez is one of many activists playing a
key role in post-war Guatemala.  She is the Executive
Director of the Association for the Study and Promotion of
Security in a Democracy (SEDEM), where she studies national
security, intelligence, and democracy in Guatemala.  Under
her direction, SEDEM has analyzed the remilitarization of
Guatemalan society; increasing threats against human-rights
defenders; and the present government's attitude towards
those who were responsible for human-rights abuses during
Guatemala's decades-long civil war.  A journalist by trade,
Ms. Hernandez is a frequent columnist in the _Prensa_Libre_
newspaper.  She was recently appointed to CICIACS, the 
Commission to Investigate Illegal Groups and Clandestine
Security Organizations.  In the last year, she has received
numerous threats to her own safety and security.

Ms. Hernandez will speak about the post-war civil movement
in Guatemala; about women's rights in the emerging political
environment; about the opportunity to dismantle the insti-
tutionalized culture of violence and impunity; and generally
about the politics of this election season in Guatemala.

For more information see http://web.mit.edu/hemisphere/events/.


CONTACT & DIRECTIONS

E-mail: mailto:hemisphere-admin at mit.edu
Web: http://web.mit.edu/hemisphere/
Directions: http://web.mit.edu/hemisphere/directions/