Speaker Jorge Velasquez Paiz from Guatemala standing behind a projected picture of his daughter, Claudina Isabel Velasquez, who was murdered at the age of 19.

The Center of Human Rights and Peace Studies at Lehman College held “New Pathways to Justice,” a major international conference on strategies to stop the violence taking place against women in Central America, on April 7.

The conference featured more than a dozen speakers from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, as well as the United States, representing an array of institutions and organzations, from “cold case” detectives and forensic specialists to prosecutors, judges and human rights advocates.

One of the speakers, Jorge Velasquez Paiz gave a emotional speech of the death of his daughter Claudina Isabel Velasquez. He made a chilling statement, “Guatemala is the country where murders can be commended.”