September 11, 2000
September 11, 2000
Contact HRF Communications (212) 845 5245 media@humanrightsfirst.org
Washington Lawyers Take On Human Rights Case from Guatemala's Civil War
Washington D.C. -- Hogan & Hartson L.L.P., the largest Washington-based U.S. law firm, announced that it has assembled a team of lawyers to assist Guatemalan Helen Mack and the New York-based Human Rights First in the prosecution of three senior Guatemalan military officers accused of orchestrating the murder of Helen’s sister, Myrna Mack. The victim, an anthropologist, was assassinated on September 11, 1990, for her pioneering studies of peasants displaced in Guatemala's murderous 36-year civil war.
Senior Hogan & Hartson partner E. Barrett Prettyman, Jr., noted that "Today is the tenth anniversary of Myrna Mack’s assassination. In all that time, Guatemala has succeeded in prosecuting only the low-level soldier who carried out the crime. His superiors, who are alleged to have directed the murder, have evaded trial."
Prettyman, along with Hogan partner Lyndon M. Tretter and associate S. Tovan McDaniel, spent several days last week in Guatemala City meeting with representatives of the executive and judicial branches of Guatemala’s government, as well as representatives of human rights organizations. Prettyman added that "While Guatemala has recently shown some willingness to accept a form of institutional or state responsibility for past human rights violations, in the current political climate, the domestic prosecutors and courts remain unable or unwilling to bring the high-ranking military officials behind the violations to trial."
In the coming weeks, Hogan & Hartson will be advising Helen Mack and Human Rights First about their remedies before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
Robert O. Varenik, Director of Protection for Human Rights First, stated, "Helen Mack and Human Rights First are pleased to have the participation of such a pre-eminent law firm as Hogan & Hartson at this important juncture." Varenik added, "The stakes could not be higher for Guatemala. After three decades of war, and 100,000 murders, the Mack case is virtually the only ongoing prosecution of senior military officials. Other cases may achieve settlements that will provide for the victims' families, but this case will be the true measure of President Portillo’s promises to break with Guatemala’s tradition of impunity."
Guatemala’s civil war ended in 1996 under a UN-supervised peace accord. An independent truth commission later found that state officials and their allies were responsible for thousands of human rights violations, including murders and disappearances.