"I never thought of working in the court system, when I graduated from the University of Camagüey in 1990 I started working as a lawyer in the Bufete Colectivo, and in 1992, in response to a call made by the Party due to the shortage of judges, I came here, and that was 32 years ago," says Liliam Martha Batista Guerra, professional judge and head of the Second Criminal Chamber of the Provincial People's Court (TPP in Spanish) of Las Tunas.
With a halo of nostalgia, she recalls her first steps in the Municipal Court of Las Tunas, where she spent two years, and fell in love with the work, commitment, and dedication that come with it.
"It is a profession of sacrifices and even more so for a woman who is a mother, daughter, wife.... In court, you know when you arrive but not when you leave, because judicial acts can extend beyond the working day."
"Being a judge is the completion of my professional life, here I found the path of what I studied. I grew humanly always attached to the law and from the respect to what corresponds to each one within the parameters of justice."
For 20 years, she worked in the First Criminal Chamber of the PPT, and in 2018, she transferred to the Second Chamber, where she remains today. She explains that some of her functions involve processing extra-penal licenses.
"Here we are responsible for giving a response to those cases in which the sanctioned person becomes ill and the danger to their life is imminent. We also give parole to people, taking into account the seriousness of the crime for which they were sanctioned and their reintegration into society."
Liliam Martha has two children, who did not follow the path of the law but who grew up and ran through the corridors of the court, who know of the sacrifices and efforts of their mother, and from whom they learned responsibility before duty, and is that her pupils are doctors, a humanistic work that requires and demands from them always the best.
In these more than 30 years she has lived in the courtroom moments that have marked her, "You know that this is one of those cases that stay in your memory because you do not stop thinking about it even when you are out of court, there are moments when we have been on the stand and sadly, we have seen a mother cry for the loss of a child.
"Stories of those that get to you, because we are human beings, it is then when we have to hold back the tears although it is difficult, we have had cases that have taken away our sleep, thinking how to make that sentence, how to answer all those questions you saw in the trial."
"And even with the feelings on the surface and a mark in the memory for life, it is up to us to impart justice from the transparency that each case requires because it is our job."
