We gazed at the carefully arranged pieces of the skeleton of a young woman: a femur, some toes, two hips, vertebrae, a burnt skull. No one knew much about her. Only that she was a Mayan, about 24 years old, and may have been pregnant. It was not clear whether she had first been killed and then burned, or vice versa.

I was in Guatemala learning about the Guatemalan civil war and the “Silent Holocaust,” the killing and disappearance of 200,000 Guatemalans, mostly Mayan civilians, the displacement of 1.5 million and the destruction of over 600 indigenous villages. These were the result of the Guatemalan military’s scorched-earth policy during 36 years of civil war. And although a peace treaty was signed in 1996, justice has still not been served, as nearly all those guilty of these crimes against humanity have gone unpunished.

I flew there from Riverside to join the Global Justice Fellowship, run by American Jewish World Service. I spent a week with 13 other Jewish spiritual leaders meeting with human rights activists who are partners with AJWS. These courageous men and women are standing up for the rights of indigenous people at the risk of their own lives, as Guatemala continues to be ruled by a repressive government.

The partial skeleton of the young woman was exhumed by a nonprofit group, Centro de Analisis Forense y Ciencias Aplicadas (CAFCA), which has unearthed the remains of over a thousand bodies. These forensic experts are offering families a bit of solace: Confirmation of their loved one’s fate and the ability to bury them with dignity.

Aside from feeling compassion for the suffering of any human being, why should anyone in the Inland Empire care about this faraway land? Don’t we have enough problems here in the U.S.? The answer is simple: We are deeply implicated in the Guatemalan situation. In the 1950s, that country’s president, Jacobo Arbenz, tried to create a fairer society by giving indigenous Guatemalans access to their ancestors’ lands. The United Fruit Company, whose land was at stake, enlisted the State Department and the CIA to back a coup that overthrew Arbenz, installing the first in a series of brutal military dictatorships. The bloody year civil war ensued.

Guatemala still endures the after-effects of U.S. intervention: 5% of the population owns 80% of the land. Mayans make up over half the population, yet they have almost no representation in the government and are subject to intense discrimination. And foreign companies and members of the ruling elite continue to displace the rural population to make way for mining sites, dams and agricultural estates.

As a rabbi, I believe in teshuvah — repentance. We owe it to Guatemalans to repair the tragic circumstances we helped to instigate.

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Acts of violence and prejudice due to inequity: Letters We can support the efforts of human rights groups in Guatemala that are trying to create a more just society, including Bufete Jurídico de Derechos Humanos, which provides pro bono legal aid to people who have suffered human rights abuses; Asociación de Mujeres Qeqchi’es Nuevo Horizonte, which empowers indigenous women to access their rights; and Autoridades Ancestrales, which works to stop the injustices facing indigenous groups.

We can also advocate in Congress for The Guatemala Rule of Law Accountability Act, which would require the Trump administration to impose sanctions on corrupt Guatemalan officials. We can stop demonizing Guatemalans coming to our border to seek sanctuary. Our government’s actions over the years are in great part responsible for the desperate conditions they are fleeing.

At this time of year in our synagogues, we are reading Exodus, the story of another group of victims fleeing harsh treatment. It reminds us that God is on the side of the oppressed, not on that of the pharaoh. Let us choose to walk with God.

Suzanne Singer is the rabbi at Temple Beth El in Riverside.