NEW YORK - Guatemala’s Fourth Appeals Court (Sala Cuarta de Apelaciones) today reversed the conviction of Colonel Juan Valencia Osorio for the 1990 murder of anthropologist Myrna Mack Chang. In October 2002, a trial court convicted and sentenced Valencia Osorio to thirty years imprisonment for his role in orchestrating the killing of Myrna Mack, the first time that a senior military officer was convicted for human rights violations committed during Guatemala’s 36-year civil war. His two co-defendants—General Augosto Godoy Gaitán and Colonel Juan Guillermo Oliva Carrera—were acquitted by the trial court and the Fourth Appeals Court today also upheld their acquittals.

Myrna Mack was killed outside her Guatemala City office in 1990, in retaliation for her groundbreaking research exposing the devastating impact of counter insurgency tactics on indigenous communities in Guatemala. In 1993, Noel de Jesús Beteta Álvarez, a soldier from an elite presidential security unit (known as the EMP), was convicted for carrying out the murder and his superior officers were subsequently charged for their role in bringing it about. In its October 3, 2024 decision following the trial of these three superior officers, the trial court accepted that Mack was targeted by the army for political reasons, that she had been categorized as an “internal enemy” due to her work, and that she had been subjected to surveillance by the army prior to her assassination. The majority of the court found that Valencia Osorio had ordered Beteta Álvarez to kill Mack, but did not find sufficient evidence to connect Godoy Gaitán and Oliva Carrera to the murder.

On October 16, 2002, the public prosecutor and the victim’s sister, Helen Mack (as private accuser), filed appeals briefs against the two acquittals. Valencia Osorio also appealed his conviction. The Fourth Appeals Court heard oral arguments from the parties on April 23, 2003. A Lawyers Committee observer attended both the April hearing and the reading of today’s decision. The appeals decision was read out this afternoon in a courtroom packed with observers and amid tight security. After dismissing all of the points of appeal raised by both the prosecution and Valencia Osorio, the court put forward its own position that there was an inconsistency in the trial court decision with regard to the role of the EMP and the responsibility of Valencia Osorio. It therefore substituted an acquittal for his conviction.

“The decision of the appeals court is a huge step backwards for accountability for human rights violations in Guatemala,” commented Neil Hicks, Director of the Lawyers Committee’s Human Rights Defenders Project. “It once again demonstrates the inability of the Guatemalan justice system to effectively address serious crimes committed by the military.” Hicks further described the decision as “the worst case scenario, raising questions about the impartiality of the court.”

Helen Mack has condemned the decision and stated her intention to further appeal to the Supreme Court, using the cassation procedure provided for under Guatemalan law. “Given that they are no longer in detention, it is likely that the defendants will fall into their old patterns of seeking to delay the proceedings,” stated Hicks.