Legal Proceedings and Obstacles to Justice in the Myrna Mack Case: A Snapshot

In February 1993, a Guatemalan court convicted and sentenced Noel de Jesús Beteta, a low-ranking member of the Presidential High Command (“EMP”), a military intelligence unit implicated in numerous human rights violations in Guatemala. However, efforts to try Beteta’s three superior officers were stalled for many years by military efforts to thwart discovery requests, threats against witnesses, alteration of documents, and frivolous procedural challenges. Finally, in January 1999, after the US State Department issued an unprecedented public statement raising the possibility of involvement of superior officers, a Guatemalan judge ordered that the three officers stand trial on charges of orchestrating the murder.

But both before and since the 1999 trial order, progress in the case has been continually hampered by many factors including frivolous and repetitive defense motions. Several of these have been filed two or more times, exploiting the absence of effective judicial sanctions for delay, and consuming months, even years, before they are denied. Many actors in the case, including lawyers, judges, and witnesses, have been attacked or threatened. Judge Henry Monroy, who issued the January 1999 trial order against the three senior military officials, resigned from the judiciary in March 1999, and fled the country after receiving threats. Other judges have demonstrated reluctance to take the case, possibly due to fear of threats or related pressures that could confront the judge who eventually does so.

While intimidation and attacks on key witnesses (many of whom are now in exile) and Guatemala's refusal to release official documents likely means key testimony and evidence will never make it to a Guatemalan court room, a trial of the three officers charged in the murder in Guatemala is nonetheless vital. A trial may not only help satisfy the legitimate need of Myrna's family and Guatemalan society for justice in the case, but also play an important role in Guatemala’s unfinished search for truth about rights violations that occurred during the decades long civil war. For example, it could reveal the involvement of senior officials in political assassinations and expose the policies and practices of the security forces, including the EMP. Furthermore, these proceedings can help to shine a spotlight on the profound flaws in the Guatemalan criminal justice system, flaws that have impeded the State’s democratic reform. It is therefore imperative that the trial of Gaitán, Osorio and Carrera be monitored closely in Guatemala and by the international community, to ensure that it is conducted fairly, and without threats against or intimidation of all persons involved, including judges, lawyers and witnesses.

The obstacles to justice are under the scrutiny of human rights bodies of the Organization of American States. In 1991 Human Rights First filed a petition on behalf of Helen Mack before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights when the initial police investigation bogged down. In March 1996, the Commission found this petition admissible and ordered proceedings before it to begin on the merits, despite the ongoing efforts to prosecute the case in Guatemala. The Commission found that delays and obstacles so compromised Helen Mack's ability to obtain prompt and effective access to a remedy she would not be required to exhaust domestic proceedings before the case could be heard by the Commission. Subsequently, during a session of the Inter-American Commission in March 2000, the Guatemalan government made an unprecedented acknowledgement of responsibility in this and a host of other human rights cases from the past decade and promised progress toward resolving the Mack case in Guatemala's courts, including obeying a court order to release official documents. However, those commitments have not been met.

As a result, the Inter-American Commission has elevated the case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. With the support and collaboration of Human Rights First, the Washington, DC-based international law firm Hogan & Hartson L.L.P., and the Center for Justice and International Law, Helen filed a written brief with that Court, alleging violations by Guatemala of the American Convention on Human Rights, both with regard to the murder itself and the subsequent failure by the state to take necessary measures to bring all the perpetrators to justice. The brief further requested that the Court order Guatemala to remedy these violations, including expeditiously trying and punishing all those responsible for the murder, and the payment of reparations to the Mack family. The Inter-American Court does not have jurisdiction to try and punish individual culprits and its consideration of the case will proceed independently of developments in the domestic criminal trial.