Guatemalan Genocide Survivor Jesús Tecú Osorio Receives 2010 Roger Baldwin Award

Guatemalan indigenous rights activist and genocide survivor Jesús Tecú Osorio has been selected to receive the prestigious 2010 Roger N. Baldwin Medal of Liberty Award for international human rights defenders.

Guatemala suffered the worst human rights violations of the 20th century in the Western Hemisphere: approximately 250,000 people were massacred, mainly indigenous Mayans at the hands of state forces. The UN labeled the atrocities genocide. However, perpetrators remain in powerful positions. Jesús Tecú is a survivor of one of the most emblematic massacres that occurred-the 1982 Rio Negro massacre. Almost all of the inhabitants of the village of Rio Negro were murdered in cold blood by the Guatemalan army and paramilitaries. At the age of 10, Tecú witnessed the murder of his parents and his two-year-old brother. He was then enslaved in the household of a military official for two years.

Jesús Tecú is now one of the leading Guatemalan human rights activists seeking justice for the genocide in Guatemala and promoting the rights of indigenous Mayans. In Rabinal, Alta Verapaz, he has established three human rights organizations providing critical services to indigenous Mayans: the New Hope Foundation, the Association for the Integral Development of the Victims of Violence, Maya-Achí (ADIVIMA) and Rabinal's Community Legal Aid Clinic. He is also a crucial witness in prosecutions against high level Guatemalan military officials in both Guatemala and Spain and in proceedings before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The award also recognizes his remarkable perseverance in seeking accountability for damages to communities affected by the construction of the Chixoy hydroelectric dam.

He is at extreme risk and continues to suffer death threats directed towards him and his children.

Tecu will be presented with the award in New York City in May 2010. He will also meet with international and U.S. policymakers in Washington, D.C. and New York.

Baldwin Selection Notification to Jesús Tecú
English | En Español

Press coverage of 2010 Baldwin Award

Press Release in English | En Español

Information on recent death threats against Jesús Tecú and his family 

Voice of America article on Jesús Tecú's selection for the 2010 Baldwin Award

More information about the Roger Baldwin Medal of Liberty