Anthropologist Peccerelli Brings Guatemala Discussion to Mason

by Rashad Mulla

Anthropologist Peccerelli Brings Guatemala Discussion to Mason

Forensic anthropologist Fredy Peccerelli, named one of Time Magazine and CNN’s “50 Latin American Leaders for the New Millennium,” and executive director of the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation, recently spoke at George Mason University about his work.

On Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012, Peccerelli described his efforts to seek truth and justice for the victims of genocide in Guatemala. According to a United Nations report, 200,000 Guatemalans were killed during the country’s 36-year civil war, which lasted from 1960-1996. The report indicates that the military was responsible for 95 percent of these deaths.

The Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation conducts identifications at mass burial sites in the country, helping put together the historical narratives of the missing and the dead. Its investigations often focus on finding out whether human rights violations were committed. As such, Peccerelli and other anthropologists in his group are often called upon to author expert reports or provide expert testimony at human rights trials.

Peccerelli talked to the Mason community about how forensic anthropology is a vital piece of the human rights landscape in Guatemala. He briefly touched on some stories of his work and the work of other forensic anthropologists in Guatemala.

In one well-known story covered on National Public Radio’s This American Life program, human rights prosecutor Sara Romero was investigating a massacre that killed 200 people in a village called Dos Erres. Evidence uncovered in the mid-1990s showed that two young boys had survived the massacre and were adopted by the military. Romero tracked one of the boys, Oscar Ramirez (now well into his adulthood), to Boston. Ramirez previously had no idea of his history, and Peccerelli was involved in piecing together his original identity.

Jo-Marie Burt, director of the Latin American Studies Program at Mason, was thrilled that students were able to hear Peccerelli’s speech.

“The students who came to the event saw the passion that Fredy Peccerelli has for his work,” Burt said. “He does amazing, incredibly professional work, and he is excited about it and engaging the world.”

About 60 people, most of them students, attended the lecture, according to Burt. The event was co-sponsored by the Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Multicultural Education, the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and Global Interdisciplinary Programs.