Human Rights Defenders in Guatemala

In 1996, Guatemala’s 36-year civil war finally came to an end with the signing of Peace Accords that laid the ground for democratic governance and respect for citizens’ rights. Despite the changes brought about by the Peace Accords, serious human rights violations continue to be committed in Guatemala and, in particular, human rights defenders remain subject to threats and attacks. In the vast majority of such cases, effective investigations have not been carried out and the perpetrators of attacks on human rights defenders are never brought to account.

The case of anthropologist Myrna Mack, killed in 1990, has gathered significant international attention and has long illustrated the prevalence of impunity for past attacks on human rights defenders. Myrna Mack - who was stalked and killed by a military death squad in 1990 - was targeted for assassination because of her public research into the effects of the civil war on rural indigenous communities. Myrna’s work drew attention to the serious human rights abuses being inflicted upon these communities and made her, in the eyes of the army, an enemy of the state. In a landmark decision on October 3, 2002, twelve years after Mack’s death, Colonel Juan Valencia Osorio, an officer of the Presidential High Command, was convicted of ordering her murder and sentenced to thirty years imprisonment.

The October 2002 decision in the Mack case remains a rare example of a senior military officer being held responsible for his role in human rights violations. Another such rare example is the case of Bishop Juan Gerardi, the founder of the Guatemalan Archdiocese’s Office of Human Rights, who was murdered in April 1998. In 2001, three military officials were convicted for their role in the Gerardi murder as a politically motivated crime of state involving military intelligence operatives.

However, the decisions in the Gerardi and Mack cases remain both unusual and precarious. On October 8, 2002, the Fourth Division of the Court of Appeals annulled the Gerardi convictions and sent the case back to a lower court for re-trial. Appeals to prevent a re-trial are pending. Valencia Osorio’s appeal against his conviction in the Mack case also remains pending.

While the killings of Myrna Mack and Bishop Gerardi, and the subsequent investigations and prosecutions have received significant public attention, the fates of these two courageous human rights defenders were far from unique. Many other individuals and organizations - lawyers, academics, journalists, labor activists, judges and civil society leaders - have been targeted for attack as a result of their work to promote democratic change and increased respect for human rights in Guatemala. Despite the formal end of the civil war, powerful individuals and institutions seeking to retain their disproportionate economic and political influence continue to intimidate and attack these defenders, especially those concerned with achieving justice and accountability for past rights violations.

There are many pending cases concerning human rights defenders who have been killed or disappeared and the perpetrators never brought to account, and the number continues to grow. A pattern of impunity exists in which those with links to the security forces or the government, who ordered the commission of political crimes, have not been prosecuted for their criminal actions. In addition, family members and colleagues of human rights defenders who have been attacked, along with those who survived such attacks, are often threatened and intimidated when they seek to find out the truth about and obtain justice for the attacks.

Human Rights Defenders Attacked in the 1990s

The following cases are drawn from numerous attacks upon human rights defenders that remain unresolved. These examples are chosen from the 1990s, to span the period immediately before and after the civil war ended, and to demonstrate the range of human rights work that was targeted and the nature of obstacles to justice. They include killings and disappearances of peasant and indigenous rights activists, a judge and trade unionists, and illustrate the prevalence of security force involvement, cover-ups, and deliberate obstruction and delay of justice.

* Juan Chanay Pablo, killed 1993

*Judge Epaminondas González Dubón,killed 1994.

*Arnoldo Xi, disappeared 1995

* Lucía Tiu Tum and Miguel Us Mejía (killed 1996), and José
Sucunú Panjoj, disappeared 1994

* Hugo Rolando Duarte Cordón, killed 1998.

A recent upsurge in attacks upon and threats against human rights defenders in Guatemala is discernible and reports of new incidents occurring are regularly received.

* Examples of attacks, 1999 to 2002

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