Decades after the Guatemalan government forcibly disappeared four indigenous human rights defenders, the country has offered a public apology to the victims’ families.

AP News reported that the forced disappearances occurred during an armed conflict from 1960 to 1996, where the State physically aimed to eliminate those identified as “internal enemies.”

Speaking at the Act of Recognition of Responsibility ceremony in December, our President Kerry Kennedy said that disappearances “tear at the social fabric, destroy trust, and create generational damage. It is one of the most serious violations (of human rights) under international law.”

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