Nineth Varenca Montenegro Cottom (born 1958 in
San Marcos
San Marcos is the Spanish name of Saint Mark. It may also refer to:
Towns and cities Argentina
* San Marcos, Salta
Colombia
* San Marcos, Antioquia
* San Marcos, Sucre
Costa Rica
* San Marcos, Costa Rica (aka San Marcos de Tarrazú)
...
,
Guatemala
Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...
) is a Guatemalan human rights activist and a victim of
state terrorism
State terrorism refers to acts of terrorism which a state conducts against another state or against its own citizens.Martin, 2006: p. 111.
Definition
There is neither an academic nor an international legal consensus regarding the proper def ...
. She was the first person to face
civil resistance
Civil resistance is political action that relies on the use of nonviolent resistance by ordinary people to challenge a particular power, force, policy or regime. Civil resistance operates through appeals to the adversary, pressure and coercion: i ...
on a national level as a result of protesting in the streets about the whereabouts of her husband,
Edgar Fernando García, who had been captured illegally by the government and has been a missing person since February 18, 1984. The disappearance of her husband still remains an unsolved case, as he is considered a ''disappeared person''.
She is married to
Mario Polanco Mario Polanco is a Guatemalan human rights activist. He is a founding member and, currently the Director of, the Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo (Mutual Support Group, or GAM) in Guatemala City, one of the country's oldest human rights organizations. He is m ...
, the current director of GAM ( es,
Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo
Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo (GAM) is a Guatemalan organization. It is a collaboration between two of Guatemala's longest standing human rights-based NGO, Grupo De Apoyo Mutuo and Haverford College Libraries. GAM itself was founded in 1984 during the in ...
, links=no, italics=no).
Militancy
In September 1919, she joined with other proud members of victims of
state violence State violence is defined as "the use of legitimate governmental authority to cause unnecessary harm and suffering to groups, individuals, and states". It can be defined broadly or narrowly to refer to such events as genocide, state terrorism, drone ...
and founded GAM ("Mutual Support Group"; es, Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo, links=no), one of Guatemala's oldest and best-known human rights organizations.
After receiving her teaching degree from
Instituto Normal Central para Señoritas Belén, she worked as a teacher in public schools for many years. She was considered a hero and a role model for women at one of the last schools she taught at, "''No 151 en la zona 7''".
Since 1979, she has dedicated herself to social struggles. As a consequence of her constant protesting, she has received thousands of death threats. She has also appeared in
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
videos that portray social struggles in Guatemala.
Politics
Montenegro was elected to Congress in 1996 and, since then, has dedicated herself to monitoring the functions of multiple public institutions, including the armed forces, where she managed to detect abnormal activity that caused the illicit enrichment of several army officials.
Since 2004, she has dedicated herself to building her own political party,
Encuentro por Guatemala
Encuentro por Guatemala ("EG")– a Spanish name variously translated as "Encounter for Guatemala" (for example, by the BBC and CNN), or as "Together for Guatemala" (Reuters) – was a Guatemalan political party; ''encuentro'' may also translate ...
, for which she received public support. Her political party united with
Visión con Valores, which obtained six seats in Congress, giving her another term of office for the 2008-12 legislative session, as second vice president. In October 2019, she lost her parliamentary immunity as a result of accusations of illegal funding of her political party.
Awards
She was named person of the year by various magazines and other media reports.
She has received international recognition in:
* The United States
* Spain
* Austria
* France
* Canada
* Argentina
See also
*
Mario Polanco Mario Polanco is a Guatemalan human rights activist. He is a founding member and, currently the Director of, the Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo (Mutual Support Group, or GAM) in Guatemala City, one of the country's oldest human rights organizations. He is m ...
External links
Interview and article in ''Prensa Libre''naming her "person of the year" for 2004
Nineth Montenegro Congress of the Republic of Guatemala (in Spanish)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Montenegro, Nineth
1958 births
Living people
People from San Marcos Department
Guatemalan human rights activists
Women human rights activists
Members of the Congress of Guatemala
Encuentro por Guatemala politicians
20th-century Guatemalan women politicians
20th-century Guatemalan politicians
21st-century Guatemalan women politicians
21st-century Guatemalan politicians
Guatemalan women activists