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Below are the first 10 and last 10 pages of uncorrected machine-read text (when available) of this chapter, followed by the top 30 algorithmically extracted key phrases from the chapter as a whole.
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OCR for page 1
Introduction
THE COMMITTEE AND THE MYRNA MACK CASE
The C ommittee on Humar1 Rights (CHR) 0 fthe National
Academy of Sciences (NAS), National Academy of Eng~neenug
(NAE), and Institute of Medicine (IOM) was created In 1976 to
gain the release of unjustly impnsoned scientists, engineers, arid
health professionals worldwide whose basic human nghts, as rec-
ognized by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, have been
severely violated by their governments. (A full description of the
committee cart be found in Appendix A.)
Most of the committee's cases involve colleagues who are
in jail or who have recently disappeared arid may still be alive.
However, because so marry colleagues in Latin America were ei-
ther killed outnght or killed after abduction and torture, solely for
having peacefully expressed their ideas, in the late 1980s the
committee began to develop lists of such cases, to register protests
with the governments involved, and to ask that those responsible
for their deaths be brought to justice. ~ Guatemala, the CHR has
never had a case of an unjustly impnsoned colleague—only those
of colleagues who are being threatened, have disappeared, or are
murdered.
OCR for page 2
2
HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE MACH CASE
The CHR has worked on the case of Guatemalan anthropol-
og~st Myrna Elizabeth Mack Chang since shortly after she was
stabbed to death In 1990 as she was leaving her office at the Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of the Social Sciences (AVANCSO)
in Guatemala City. Myrna Mack had been doing research on and
writing about the unjust treatment of the internally displaced peo-
ple in Guatemala, and she was murdered two days after a report for
which she was principal researcher, Assistance and Control: Poli-
cies Toward Internally Displaced Populations ir' Guatemala, was
published by Georgetown University Press.
Myrna Mack, who earned a master's degree in an~ropol-
ogy in England at the University of Manchester, was a consultant
to the ~ter-Amencan Commission on Human Rights arid had aca-
demic ties with several universities in the United States, including
Georgetown University and the University of California at Berke-
ley.
.
..0
Background information on the CHR's work In Guatemala
can be found In two of its previous publications, Scientists arid
Human Rights ir' Guatemala: Report of a Delegation (National
Academy Press, 1992), which describes the findings of the CHR
missions to Guatemala in 1991 arid 1992; and The Myrna Mack
Case: An Update (National Academy Press, 1998), which pro-
vides a history of He legal proceedings that brought to trial the
military officer now convicted of planning and ordenng the mur-
der. Both publications are available from the CHR or on its web-
site: nationalacademies.org/pga (Committee on Human Rights/
Reports Archive). These CHR reports are supplemented by subse-
quent reports by the Lawyers' Committee on Human Rights (avail-
able from the LCHR at www.Ichr.org). An infonnative summary
of the situation in Guatemala that existed during He latter part of
the civil war and events that followed the murder of Myrna Mack
has been provided by Rachel Garst, consultant and U.S. representa-
tive of the Guatemalar1 nonprofit organization, S eguridad en De-
mocracia (see Appendix B).
OCR for page 3
INTRODUCTION
3
The initial police report on Myma Mack's murder provided
evidence that it was politically motivated, and the report implicated
military intelligence officers. The policeman who did the investi-
gation and wrote the report was murdered in front of his family, in
August 1991, shortly before he was to give testimony before the
Inter-Amencan Commission on Human Rights of the Organization
of American States. The report identified a former employee of
the Intelligence Branch of the Presidential High Command (Noe!
de Jesus Beteta Alvarez) as a suspect In the murder of Myrna
Mack; he then fled the country. Beteta was apprehended in Cali-
fo~a and extradited to face the charges in Guatemala City. He
was convicted in February 1993 and sentenced to 25 years in
pnson, as well as 5 additional years for an unrelated incident. At
that trial the judge rejected the prosecution's petition to leave open
the proceedings against the alleged "intellectual authors" of the
cnme, who were three military officers: General Edgar Augusto
Godoy Gaitan, Colonel Juan Valencia resorb, and Colonel Juan
Gu~lermo Oliva Carrera. However, they were subsequently ~n-
dicted in June 1996.
Over the years, the CHR and many members of the NAS,
NAE, and TOM have sent hundreds of letters to the gove~nent of
Guatemala urging that it bring to justice the people responsible for
Myma Mack's death, including the intellectual authors of the
crime. The CHR's chair and staff members met with successive
Guatemalan ambassadors to the United States to express the com-
m~ttee's concern. At venous times, the chair and staff also met
with individuals at He U.S. Department of State to learn more
about He murder and to emphasize Bat any evidence of which
they were aware that could shed light on the case be shared with
the Mack family.
CHR representatives first met with the Mack family, in-
cluding Myoma Mack's teenage daughter Lucrecia He~nandez Mack
and her sister Helen Mack at their home in Guatemala City in
OCR for page 4
HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE MACK CASK
1992; they have remained in close contact with Helen, who has
acted as private prosecutor in her sister's case. The CHR twice
brought Helen Mack to Washington. In 1996 she spoke about her
sister's case at a symposium on human nghts, "Challenges in Sci-
ence and Human Rifts; Past, Present, and Future," held during
the NAS annual meeting. Two years later, the CHR arranged for
her to meet with individuals at the U.S. Department of State about
the need for specific information, of which they might be aware, to
help her in prosecuting her sister's case. As an articulate spokes-
woman regarding her sister's case and the overall human rights
situation in Guatemala, H elen M ack h as b ecome a figurehead in
the continuing struggle for human rights progress in Guatemala.
CHR MISSIONS TO GUATEMALA
.
.
The CHR has sent three missions to Guatemala since
Myrna places murder. During the first one in 1991, representa-
tives attended the inauguration of a major human rights program
organized by the University of San Carios and assessed whether a
more ambitious mission should be undertaken. In response to the
conclusion that a second mission should be undertaken, five Cow
representatives went to Guatemala for a week in 1992. That sec-
ond mission had five objectives: to assess the human rights situa-
tion of scientific colleagues; to bring attention to the cases of col-
lea~es who had been murdered for political reasons or who had
been abducted and never reappeared (with a particular emphasis on
Myrna Mack); to meet with Guatemalan officials; to lend support
to the courageous efforts of the Mack family to bring to justice
those responsible for the planning and execution of the murder of
Myrna Mack; and, it was hoped, to bring a measure of protection
to other vulnerable arid threatened colleagues.
The Bird mission was undertaken in September 2002 by
Mary Jane West-Eberhard, an evolutionary biologist who is a
OCR for page 5
INTRODUCTION
s
member of the NAS, and Morton Parush, a chemist who is a mem-
ber of both the NAS and the NAE. The terms of reference for the
mission, which were sent to Guatemalan officials in advance, are
presented in the box on page 6. The objectives of the third mission
included attending a portion of the trial of the three former m~li-
tary officers accused of ordering the murder of Myrna Mack.
West-Eberhard and Panish spent the week of September 9-13,
2002, in Guatemala City. This was the second week of the trial,
and they attended the fifth through the eighth days. West-Eberhard
and Parrish spent IS hours observing the trial dunng the approxi-
mately 26 hours it was in session during their visit. For the parts
of the trial that they did not attend, they have included in their m~s-
sion summary infonnation gleaned from daily updates written by
the Washington Office on Lat~n America (WOLA), the My~na
Mack Foundation, and members of the press.
In addition to attending the teal, West-Eberhard and Panish
carried out several over activities (listed in Appendix C) to better
understand the context of the trial and the current situation and po-
litical clunate In Guatemala that may affect the well-be~ng of the
Cows scientific colleagues there. They also wished to show soli-
darity with these colleagues dunug Me critical and sometimes dan-
gerous penod In which the tnal took place.
.
OCR for page 6
6
HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE MACK CASE
Terms of Reference
for
Delegation of the Committee on Human Rights of the National Academy of Sciences
(NAS), National Academy of Engineering (RAE), and Institute of Medicine (IOM)
to Guatemala
Dr. Morton Panish, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, and He
National Academy of Engineenng, USA, and Mary Jane West-Eberhard, a member of
the National Academy of Sciences, USA, are representatives of the Committee on
Human Rights of the NAS, MAE, IOM who were asked to travel to Guatemala City,
Guatemala on September 8-14, 2002, on behalf of the committee.
Their visit has seven objectives:
(1) to attend as observers the second phase of the trial related to the September 11, 1990,
murder of a scientific colleague, sociologist Myrna Elizabeth Mack Chang;
(2) to demonstrate by their presence the importance that the CHR attaches to the
completion of this Dial in a fair and just manner, in accordance m~ international law,
-
.
.+
J
(3) to discuss with goverrunent authorities in Guatemala the CHR's concern about the
physical safety of colleagues in science, engineering, and health care whose work has a
human rights dimension,
(4) to meet with scientists and scholars and visit academic research arid education centers
to establish closer personal ties and gain a better understanding of the work of scientific
colleagues and the circumstances under which it is conducted;
(5) to learn how members of the international scientific community might assist their
colleagues in Guatemala to carry out their work in a safe and secure environment;
(63 to present what they learn during their visit to the officers and members of the
National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of
Medicine; and
(7) to prepare a report on their visit for distribution to interested individuals and
organizations in the United States and abroad.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
myrna mack
