Spc. Vanessa Guillén, a 20-year-old U.S. Army, soldier went missing April 22. Vanessa had told her family she was being sexually harassed by a soldier at Fort Hood in Texas, where she was stationed. Vanessa’s remains were found on July 1 near a river. Spc. Aaron Robinson was suspected of bludgeoning her to death. As police confronted him, he took his own life. A congressional delegation is looking into a string of deaths and disappearances connected to the Army base, including Vanessa’s murder. The public has shown its concern and love for Vanessa by painting murals and demanding justice. A national campaign #IAmVanessaGuillén was launched — a continuation of the #MeToo movement on violence towards women. Vanessa’s family marched in Austin before lawyers introduced a bill (#IamVanessaGuillen) to allow service members to file claims of sexual harassment to a third-party agency instead of through the military. Lupe Guillén, Vanessa’s 16 year-old- sister, said Vanessa was afraid of retaliation if she made a report. “We still don’t know the truth,” she told a crowd outside the capitol. “The Army is trying to cover this up. My sister, a woman and a human being, is not a sexual object.” She hopes the world will know that “the base’s lack of safety and respect” is killing its soldiers, and that its leadership is “toxic.”
Excerpted from article by Gloria Sandoval and Laura Garcia, tribunodelpueblo.org
