Human Rights First Hails Conviction of Juan Valencia Osorio for Murder of Myrna Mack

4 October 2002

Human Rights First applauds the verdict handed down yesterday by a Guatemalan criminal court in the trial of three senior military officials for the 1990 murder of anthropologist Myrna Mack. The trial of General Augosto Godoy Gaitán, Colonel Juan Valencia Osorio and Colonel Juan Guillermo Oliva Carrera, which commenced September 3 in Guatemala City, is the first in which a senior military officer was convicted for human rights violations committed during the 36-year civil war that ended in 1996.

Myrna Mack was killed outside her office in 1990 by a military death squad in retaliation for her groundbreaking research exposing the devastating impact of counter insurgency tactics on indigenous communities in Guatemala. In 1993 a soldier from an elite presidential security unit was convicted for carrying out the murder and in 2000 the Guatemalan government admitted responsibility. That soldier’s superior officers were charged and brought to trial largely due to the tireless and courageous efforts of the victim’s sister, Helen Mack, over the past twelve years.

Human Rights First has been working for many years to support Helen Mack in her struggle for justice and has been monitoring the case against Godoy Gaitán, Valencia Osorio and Oliva Carrera closely. Both in the years prior to their trial, and during the trial itself, Human Rights First has been greatly concerned by threats, intimidation and violence directed against individuals associated with the case and, indeed, against all human rights defenders in Guatemala. The situation for those who seek to expose serious human rights violations remains precarious and much remains to be done to ensure that such human rights defenders are able to perform their important work without fear of retaliation.

The court convicted Colonel Juan Valencia Osorio as the officer who ordered the killing, and sentenced him to the maximum prison term of 30 years.

Human Rights First Director of Program, Michael McClintock commented that, “this is a very significant step forward. The court’s decision established the way the military defined courageous people like Myrna Mack as enemies of the state, how they organized operations to murder them, and how ultimately, these crimes could not have sprung from the minds of lone individuals. Taken together, these elements will invaluable to other victims who may now try to prove what happened to them or their loved ones.”

The conviction of Col. Juan Valencia Osorio, while a remarkable achievement, does not however relieve the responsibility of the Guatemalan authorities to provide protection for all human rights defenders and to investigate and prosecute all cases of violence and intimidation. In addition, Human Rights First reminds the Guatemalan government of the history of threats and intimidation against Helen Mack and her legal team as well as judges, witnesses, public prosecutors and others, and calls upon the authorities to ensure all reasonable measures are taken to ensure their continued security.

Human Rights First observers have been in Guatemala for several weeks to monitor the Mack trial and will produce a full report on its history, conduct and context in light of national and international standards. For more information on the report, please contact Matthew Bray at +1 212 845 5298 Braym@humanrightsfirst.org.