Guatemalan Activist Calixto Torres Santay

Calixto (pronounced Ca-LEEX-to) Torres is a 28-year-old Guatemalan activist who was recently granted political asylum in the United States.

Originally from the province of Totonicapan, he first became involved in political activism as a high school student in the capital, experiencing state repression first-hand when police stormed his school in full riot gear in search of student activists; a good friend of his did not survive the attack, and his tortured body was found days later. Calixto himself still has trouble with his right arm as a consequence of the abuses he endured in this incident.

In 1987, Calixto began to study law at the University of San Carlos in Quetzaltenango. While a university student he was active in organizing student protests and participated in the Huelga de Dolores. As a student leader, he was received threats over the phone, through the mail, and was often targeted along with other members of the Huelga de Dolores organizing committee for incidents of harrassment and repression; for example, once the building they met in was shot at, and on another occasion, a car bomb exploded near their meeting place.

Three fellow student activists lost their lives to death squads during this period. In 1990, Calixto and some of his colleagues were apprehended by the police, who were looking for some documents the student activists had been preparing. Fortunately, fellow students and university professors mounted an immediate campaign for the students' release, and they were set free after only one night in prison.

Calixto believes that if it had not been for this urgent action on the part of his friends, he would likely never have escaped alive. Calixto also worked in community development, and later served as director of a rural health development project for Christian Relief Services. This work involved travel to conflict-ridden areas where army crackdowns on supposed 'guerrillas' often cost civilians their lives. In 1994, tensions in the area rose when the army kidnapped and killed four community leaders. Following this incident, the army began to follow Calixto and others of his co-workers at Christian Relief Services. Almost every day, cars would follow him on the street or park outside his house.

Twice, four unknown men arrived at his house looking for him, and he doubts that had they found him, he would have survived the encounter. He changed his residence and escaped to Nicaragua for a few months, until finally in July/August 1995, he was able to secure a visa for travel to the United States, where he applied for political asylum in November 1995. He was granted asylum in March 1996. Since then, he has continued his activism on behalf of his homeland, working with Grupo Maya in Northern California and more recently with Guatemala Partners in Washington, DC.

Calixto attributes his having survived years of persecution by the security forces in Guatemala to the fact that early on, he learned to take extreme precautions to safeguard his life. These included having at least two places to sleep at all times, changing residences frequently, never releasing his telephone number or address except to trusted contacts, never attending or departing from a protest or political organizing meeting alone, always alternating the routes he took from home to work and back, and always watching to see if he was being followed. He hopes to return to Guatemala one day but is not sure when this will be possible.