PWRDF Partner Miriam Iquique Under Threat
Prayers of Solidarity Requested
By Suzanne Rumsey, LA/C Program Coordinator
Those who have visited the PWRDF 50th anniversary website recently will remember reading about PWRDF partner, Miriam Iquique who is the coordinator of the Ecumenical Women’s Network (REM) in Guatemala. Together with other women weavers of her organization, Miriam was commissioned by PWRDF to weave stoles for sale through the website as part of our 50th anniversary celebrations.
On Monday, May 18, PWRDF received an e-mail from Miriam explaining that two days previously, her 19-year-old son, Axel Coroy Iquique had been kidnapped in the Chimaltenango area where Miriam’s home is located, just north of Guatemala City. In a subsequent phone conversation, Hugo Garrido, the director of CIEDEG (Conference of Evangelical Churches of Guatemala) of which the REM is a part, characterized it as a “secuestro rápido”, a fast kidnapping, a phenomenon which unfortunately has become all too common in Guatemala. The kidnappers phoned to demand 20,000Q (about $2,800 CDN) be paid in ransom within 24 hours or Axel would be killed. Miriam’s family was able to gather 13,000Q and Axel was released the following day with signs of having been tied up and beaten.
Just prior to this event, on Thursday, May 14, two women, a cousin of Miriam’s and the cousin’s daughter, were assassinated near the Chimaltenango village of Santa Isabel. The tortured bodies of Maria Margarita Iquique Car, 42-years-old, and Lesbia Equit Iquique, 24-years-old, were found along with two young children ages two and five, who were still alive, but suffering from hypothermia.
In recent months Miriam herself has suffered two assaults and in the past, telephoned death threats. Given the levels of rampant violence in the country, it is difficult to determine whether or not Miriam is being targeted for her organizing work among rural, Mayan indigenous women, that is, whether these attacks are politically motivated. Nevertheless, those of us in PWRDF who have met and worked with Miriam are gravely concerned for her safety.
Miriam and the REM/CIEDEG are not currently requesting a letter-writing campaign or other urgent action, but PWRDF has contacted the Canadian Embassy in Guatemala City directly, requesting that embassy officials visit Miriam in her community. They have agreed to do so and we will be following up both with the Embassy and with Miriam and the REM/CIEDEG in the coming days and weeks.
In the meantime, we ask for your prayers of solidarity for Miriam, her husband and nine children, especially Axel, for Maria Margarita and Lesbia, and for all those in Guatemala who are victims of violence. As Miriam wrote in her May 18th e-mail, “In spite of all our struggles, impunity in Guatemala continues.” 
Miriam and her daughter