The Universidad Rafael Landívar has opened its fourth Centro Landivariano Integral de Proyección (CIP), named "Litzy Cordón y Karen Mayorga," at the San Luis Gonzaga campus in Zacapa. The inauguration took place on October 28, 2025, and was attended by university officials including Rector Father Miquel Cortés Bofill, Vice-Rector of Research and Outreach Dr. Juventino Gálvez, Campus Director Ángel Cordón, and University Outreach Director Ioannen Pérez. Local authorities and members of the university community were also present.
The new center is named after Litzy Amelia Cordón Guardado and Karen Patricia Mayorga Zacarías, two students from the Zacapa campus who lost their lives to violence in 2020 and 2023. According to the university, both students "shared a deep vocation for service, a strong commitment to their community, and the desire to build a more just and humane country." The naming of the center is described as an act of dignity and hope for the university community across all nine campuses.
"This is a symbolic declaration of resilience and social transformation in response to gender-based violence that affects so many women in Guatemala; it is especially a gesture to reclaim the dreams of Litzy and Karen, reaffirming the need to create safe, equal, and violence-free environments; as well as URL's institutional commitment to achieve this," stated representatives during the event.
During the inauguration ceremony, family members participated alongside students who contributed photos for an altar set up as part of International Women's Day commemorations earlier this year.
The CIP will provide comprehensive services at accessible prices for communities near the San Luis Gonzaga campus. It is noted as URL’s first such center in eastern Guatemala. Services will focus initially on health care as well as socio-economic and environmental advice. Facilities include fully equipped health clinics, offices for consultations, and a specialized audiometry clinic operated in partnership with Fundación Sonrisas que Escuchan.
These efforts are coordinated by the University Outreach Directorate under the Vice-Rectorate for Research and Outreach. Medical services will be supported by staff from URL’s San Pedro Claver campus in La Verapaz.
The development of these centers forms part of Universidad Rafael Landívar’s Strategic Plan 2022-2030. The centers aim to bring together academic resources across campuses within its system to serve local communities through collaborative outreach projects inspired by Jesuit apostolic preferences.
San Luis Gonzaga campus was established in 1977 and became an official university campus in 2009. As of October 2025, it serves nearly two thousand undergraduate students with six faculties offering twenty undergraduate programs.
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