González Pérez sisters
In the mountains of Chiapas, in southeastern Mexico, where the sound of the wind often hides more stories than it uncovers, three sisters chose to raise their voices. Their decision to speak out made them one of the most emblematic cases of survivors denouncing sexual violence committed by State agents in Mexico. Thirty years on, their voices remain strong, reminding us that violence against women, especially Indigenous women, continues to be a reality of life for women in Mexico and across the Americas.
The resilience underlying the quest for justice
Photo: Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights (CMDPDH).
“For Ana, Beatriz, and Celia, justice is about more than their individual experience. It also involves a collective, community-based perspective”
Gloria Guadalupe Flores Ruiz, attorney from the representation committee
Every year on March 8, International Women’s Day provides an opportunity to highlight stories of women’s resilience, like that of Ana, Beatriz, and Celia González Pérez, Indigenous Tzeltzal sisters who have become symbols of the struggle for Indigenous women’s rights in Mexico.
They lived with their family in Altamirano, a municipality where in 1994 there was a strong military presence due to the internal armed conflict unfolding in the state of Chiapas at the time. On June 4, 1994, while returning to their community, the three sisters—one of whom was a minor—were detained, interrogated, tortured, and subject to psychological and physical violence by ten members of Mexican Armed Forces who alleged the women belonged to the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN). On June 30, 1994, they and their mother, Delia Pérez de González, filed a complaint with the Office of the Attorney General.
Despite medical examinations and testimonies corroborating the facts, the State’s response in the years that followed was distant, and the case moved forward slowly. Despite this institutional neglect and the language barrier—the González Pérez sisters speak Tzeltal rather than Spanish—they decided to continue their fight for justice.
Faced with the State’s inaction and feeling that their voices were not being heard, the sisters’ family and their legal representatives decided to bring the case before the Inter-American Human Rights System. It reached the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which issued Merits Report 53/01 on April 4, 2001, in which determined that the State had neither investigated nor prosecuted those responsible within the criminal justice system, nor had it provided reparations to the González Pérez sisters and their family for the human rights violations they had suffered.
During their pursuit for justice before the Inter-American System, the González Pérez sisters were supported by the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), a nongovernmental organization that works to promote and protect human rights in the Americas.
Attorney Soledad Sánchez, who worked on the case through CEJIL, explains that the goal of bringing the case before the Inter-American System has been to obtain justice and to ensure that justice is part of the broader process of reparation. The proceedings before the IA Court enabled the sisters to “obtain a merits report that establishes the facts and presents a narrative of truth that brings them closer to justice as they understand it, forging a path toward achieving this. In this sense, the proceedings before the IACHR have involved some reparation for the sisters,” Soledad Sánchez says.
In the merits report, the IACHR made two recommendations
to the Mexican State:
Conduct a full, impartial, and effective investigation to identify those responsible for the human rights violations committed against Ana, Beatriz, and Celia González Pérez and their mother, Delia.
Provide reparations for the sisters and
their mother.
Photo: Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL).
Through the Committee Representing the González Pérez Sisters, the attorney Gloria Guadalupe Flores Ruiz and Indigenous women’s rights defender Rosa López Santiz have supported the women in their quest for justice. Ms. López Santiz’s work has been particularly important in the proceedings before the IACHR, as she acted as an interpreter between Spanish and Tzeltal, the Indigenous language the sisters speak. As attorney Gloria Guadalupe explains, “Rosa’s work has been vital. She became the bridge between the Inter-American System’s perspective on justice and how these Indigenous women envision rights and justice. She helped them understand what the IACHR is, how it works, and how it supports the quest for justice, which helped bring a legal perspective to bear on their case.”
Ana, Beatriz, and Celia have ceaselessly continued their struggle despite more than 30 years of impunity. Authorities continue to investigate the acts of torture committed by the soldiers, yet no members of the military have been formally identified as responsible for these crimes.
“This is a very important case because it shows that sexual violence against Indigenous women remains a structural problem and highlights the lack of an adequate response from the justice system for Indigenous women”
Soledad Sánchez, CEJIL attorney
As part of the reparation process, the State held a public ceremony before the sisters and their mother in 2019. In it, the State committed to implementing the IACHR’s recommendations, acknowledged its responsibility for the violation of their rights, and offered an apology.
However, according to their representatives, Ana, Beatriz, and Celia maintain that important steps remain pending, including a public apology from the armed forces and meaningful progress on the investigation. “They’ve always had a clear idea of what they want and have never given up on it. In 2019, they explained what a process of reparation means, and that reparation involves sanctioning those responsible. Meaningful progress has yet to be made on that aspect”, Gloria Guadalupe notes.
The sisters’ pursuit of justice through the Inter-American System has had an impact at the regional level: their case was one of the first in which Indigenous women spoke out about human rights violations they had experienced, despite fearing potential consequences of doing so.
The IACHR’s involvement helped raise the profile of the González Pérez sisters’ struggle, amplify their voices, and establish key precedents within inter-American standards for analyzing similar cases. Their strength and courage have inspired many Indigenous women in the region to seek justice in their own countries and before the Inter-American System.
"The fact that these four women, including their mother, dared to turn to institutions and legal processes that were not part of their community’s traditional ways of organizing—and to do so with such dignity and courage—sustaining their demand over time and saying, “we want justice,” while also speaking openly about what happened, has been significant not only in Mexico but across Latin America. Perhaps this case is not so widely known because it did not reach the IA Court, but it paved the way for future cases as the IACHR, such as those of Inés and Valentina—Indigenous women also assaulted by soldiers in Guerrero:
Gloria Guadalupe Flores Ruiz, attorney from the representation committee
"Each case, like that of the González sisters, even when it has not yet been properly addressed, also represents an opportunity for change. In these cases, States can identify structural failures and generate changes to prevent similar violations from happening again. Even when there are unresolved issues, these cases offer a chance for transformation, to prevent them from recurring, raise awareness, build collective memory, and enable access to justice and truth, not only for the victims but for society as a whole. This case and the strength of these three sisters in bringing these proceedings before an international court to obtain justice for themselves and for all Indigenous women who have experienced and continue to experience violence of this type in Mexico sends a powerful message of resilience, determination, and inspiration for women in Mexico and Indigenous communities more broadly. This is a strong message that opens up new paths for continued struggle and points the way toward transforming our reality."
Soledad Sánchez, CEJIL attorney
About the case
The case of the sisters Ana, Beatriz, and Celia González Pérez concerns sexual violence committed by members of the Mexican Federal Army in 1994. The case was admitted by the IACHR in 2001. In its merits report, the IACHR concluded that the State of Mexico was responsible for the sexual violence suffered by the González Pérez sisters.
Following the transfer of the investigation into the torture of the three sisters to Mexico’s criminal courts in 2013, the Mexican State made some progress on the case, including allowing the victims to participate in the investigation and publicly acknowledging responsibility in 2019. They received financial compensation between 2020 and 2021 but consider that important issues remain unresolved.
At present, compliance with the recommendations made by the IACHR in the merits report is being monitored. During this phase, the IACHR assesses the actions taken by the State to comply with the recommendations, as well as progress toward comprehensive reparations and guarantees
of nonrepetition.
By exposing institutional neglect toward Indigenous people and the differentiated violence faced by Indigenous women during conflicts, the case has already had a significant impact. The IACHR has documented progress such as the inclusion of a gender perspective in the investigations, the active participation of the victims in various stages of the proceedings, and the presence of Tzeltal interpreters
at these, which strengthen access to truth and justice.
This report was produced by Lucía Gualdron, an intern in the OAS Internship Program, within the Press and Communication Section of the IACHR.