Interview with David Morales and Alejandra Cabrera, human rights defenders from El Salvador and Guatemala

David Morales, coordinator of the Transitional Justice area of the Cristosal Foundation of El Salvador, and Alejandra Cabrera, Guatemalan communicator and political advisor and daughter of a missing father, participated last December in the Seminar on Enforced Disappearance organised by Hegoa. The newspaper Gara has recently published an interview with both of them, carried out by the journalist Ainara Lertxundi and entitled “Enfrentamos toda una estructura de negación y de encubrimiento” (“We face a whole structure of denial and cover-up”).

In this interview, David Morales and Alejandra Cabrera address issues such as the scorched earth policies imposed in El Salvador and Guatemala, the search for truth and justice, the impact of disappearances and torture, and the denialist theses that are proliferating.

David Morales is a lawyer, former human rights prosecutor, elected member of the Legislative Assembly for the period 2013-16, and coordinator of the Transitional Justice Unit of the Cristosal Foundation. He is part of the legal team that supports the legal action in response to the massacres of El Mozote and El Calabozo.

Alejandra Cabrera is a Guatemalan communicator and political advisor. She is a plaintiff in the Diario Militar case, a military intelligence document that contains a record of 195 people considered “enemies of the state.” Her father, Leopoldo Cabrera, secretary of finances of the Guatemalan Labour Party (PGT), who disappeared on 1 March 1984, is on this record.

Both David Morales and Alejandra Cabrera agree that enforced disappearances are not “things of the past”, a comment they hear on a regular basis, and say they will continue working for human rights and to achieve true transitional justice in their countries.