Fredy Peccerelli: A forensic anthropologist who brings closure for the "disappeared"
Fredy Peccerelli: Un anthropologue légiste apporte un dénouement aux « disparitions »
Fredy Peccerelli works with families whose loved ones “disappeared” in the 36-year armed conflict in Guatemala. The executive director of the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation, he helps locate bodies and give back identities to those buried in mass graves. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
a 36-year armed conflict.
tout juste d'un conflit armé de 36 ans.
during the Cold War.
durant la Guerre Froide.
a small leftist insurgency
insurrection de gauche
venant de l'État.
is 200,000 civilian victims,
200 000 victimes civiles.
killed in the communities:
des communautés suivantes :
the elderly even.
et même des personnes âgées.
les portés disparus,
about 40,000 others, the missing,
are Mayan victims,
Central America.
de l'Amérique Centrale.
European descent.
defend us, the police, the military,
nous défendre, la police, l'armée,
la plupart de ces crimes.
most of the crimes.
veulent des explications.
they want information.
Elles veulent les corps de leurs proches.
what they want is they want you,
that their loved ones did nothing wrong.
leurs proches n'ont rien fait de mal.
avait reçu des menaces de mort en 1980.
received death threats in 1980.
et j'ai grandi à New York.
and I went to New Utrecht High School
et je suis diplômé du Brooklyn College.
au Guatemala.
was happening in Guatemala.
c'était trop douloureux.
to do something about it.
que je décidai de faire quelque chose.
to look for the bodies,
and to look for part of myself as well.
et pour chercher un peu de moi-même aussi.
en donnant aux gens des informations.
we give people information.
et nous leur laissons le choix.
and we let them choose.
us the stories,
de nous divulguer les histoires,
de nous donner un morceau d'eux-mêmes.
give us a piece of themselves.
going to compare
from the skeletons.
we're looking for the bodies.
nous cherchons des corps.
se sont déroulés il y a 32 ans.
happened 32 years ago.
le corps, le documenter et l'exhumer.
the body, document it, and exhume it.
skeleton out of the ground.
les squelettes du placard.
we take them back to the city, to our lab,
les ramenons en ville, dans notre labo,
to understand mainly two things:
de comprendre deux choses :
comment les gens sont morts ?
à l'arrière de la tête,
wound to the back of the head
par exemple.
is who they are.
with that analysis
fragment of the bone
DNA of the families, of course.
avec celui des familles.
is by showing you two cases.
je vais vous montrer deux exemples.
du journal militaire.
of the military diary.
out of somewhere in 1999.
de nulle part en 1999.
is the state following individuals,
c'est l'État surveillant des individus,
wanted to change their country,
voulaient changer leur pays.
figurait le moment de l'exécution.
down is when they executed them.
vous voyez un code.
you see a code,
indique le jour de l'exécution.
means when they were executed.
into play in a second.
une exhumation en 2003.
an exhumation in 2003,
de 53 tombes dans une base militaire.
from 53 graves in a military base.
à la famille de Sergio Saul Linares.
of Sergio Saul Linares.
at the university.
de l'Université de l'Iowa
to change his country.
pour changer son pays.
February 23, 1984.
executed on March 29, 1984,
il a été exécuté le 29 mars 1984,
information and their DNA,
de la famille et leur ADN,
that told us exactly what happened.
racontant ce qui s'était vraiment passé.
two weeks later,
deux semaines plus tard,
aussi à l'ADN de cette famille.
also matched the DNA of that family.
that he was also in the diary.
qu'il était aussi dans le journal.
also executed on March 29, 1984.
aussi exécuté le 29 mars 1984.
how many bodies were in the grave?
combien de corps sont dans cette tombe ?
were executed on March 29, 1984?
ont été exécutées
Moises and Zoilo.
Hugo, Moises et Zoilo.
all captured at different locations
capturés dans des endroits différents,
besoin de l'ADN de ces quatre familles.
was the DNA of those four families
and we found them.
et nous les avons trouvées.
and gave them back to the families.
et les avons rendus à leurs familles.
je voudrais vous parler
called CREOMPAZ.
appelée CREOMPAZ.
but the acronym really means
mais l'acronyme signifie
for Peacekeeping Operations.
de Maintien de la Paix.
entraîne les soldats de la paix étrangers,
trains peacekeepers from other countries,
comme Haïti et le Congo.
like Haiti and the Congo.
within this military base,
qu'à l'intérieur de cette base militaire,
and about two hours after we went in,
de perquisition et deux heures plus tard,
a total of 533 bodies.
des 84 tombes, pour un total de 533 corps.
on top of bodies.
entraînés au dessus des corps —
plupart, les mains attachées dans le dos,
hands tied behind their backs,
toutes sortes de traumatismes —
who were being executed.
qui étaient exécutés.
was a grave full of women and children,
était pleine de femmes et d'enfants,
une affaire de ce genre ? »
a case like this?
au Guatemala en 1995,
that happened on May 14, 1982,
qui s'était déroulé le 14 mai 1982,
avait tué les hommes,
in helicopters to an unknown location.
en hélicoptères vers un endroit inconnu.
clothing from the region
correspondaient à ceux venant de la région
were taken from.
avaient été capturés.
and guess what?
d'ADN et devinez quoi ?
Martina Rojas et Manuel Chen.
and Manuel Chen.
and now we could prove it.
de prouver leur disparition.
qui attestent de cet événement
proves that this happened
ont été emmenés dans cette base.
were taken to this base.
et l'avait laissé chez un voisin.
clothes, and she left him with a neighbor.
a helicopter and never seen again
pour ne jamais réapparaître,
with anthropology, with genetics,
l'anthropologie, la génétique,
giving a voice to the voiceless.
evidence for trials,
last year in Guatemala
l'an dernier au Guatemala.
of genocide and sentenced to 80 years.
coupable de génocide
that this is happening everywhere --
que ça se passe partout —
right in front of us today --
au Mexique, devant nos yeux —
et nous engager
any more missing.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Fredy Peccerelli - Forensic anthropologistFredy Peccerelli works with families whose loved ones “disappeared” in the 36-year armed conflict in Guatemala. The executive director of the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation, he helps locate bodies and give back identities to those buried in mass graves.
Why you should listen
In Guatemala’s brutal civil war, 200,000 civilians were killed — and more than 40,000 of them were never found. They are referred to as the “disappeared,” and since the end of the conflict, their bodies have been found in unmarked mass graves with very little information to identify them.
Fredy Peccerelli has a personal connection to this tragic story. He was born in Guatemala, but when his father received threats from a death squad, his family left for the United States. It was 1980 and Peccerelli was 9. He quickly adapted to life in Brooklyn, New York. But in 1994, while a college student, he heard a presentation on the emerging field of forensic anthropology. The speakers talked about exhuming bodies from mass graves in Guatemala, and Peccerelli was fascinated. He wanted to help.
Peccerelli founded the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation, which meets with the families of the “disappeared,” listens to their stories and takes DNA samples to match to exhumed bodies. In this way, they are able to piece together narratives of what happened — in order to give families closure and to provide evidence for the trials of those involved in the deaths.
Pecerrelli has been profiled on PBS, in The New York Times and more. He recently launched the “No More Missing” campaign to raise money for an interactive website to tell the stories of the Guatemalan "disappeared" on the global stage. He wants people across the world to see the connection between what happened Guatemala and what is happening today in countries like Mexico.
Fredy Peccerelli | Speaker | TED.com