AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

View Alerts By > Case | Date | Country | Victim

AAAS Human Rights Action Network

FACTS OF THE CASE:

On 3 March 1997, employees of the Association for the Advancement of Social Science in Guatemala (Asociacion para el Avance de las Ciencias Sociales en Guatemala [AVANCSO]) received the latest in a series of threats. Despite the official end of hostilities with the signing of the peace accord in December 1996, the threats are consistent with a pattern of monitoring and harassment conducted by members of the government's security forces against its perceived opponents. The attacks against AVANCSO began with the murder of its co-founder, the prominent anthropologist Dr. Myrna Mack. She was killed by the military in September 1990 for her work in documenting the effects of the harsh rural conditions of the one million indigenous Guatemalans displaced by the country's civil war, often as a result of military violence. Since her murder, AVANCSO employees have continued to be harassed, presumably in response to Helen Mack's successful efforts to bring her sister's case to the Guatemalan courts as well as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

In December 1996, at the time of the signing of the peace accord between the government and the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteco (URNG), two men appeared at AVANCSO's offices and questioned staff members about their work. These two men were later identified as the perpetrators of a 24 February 1997 attack on AVANCSO's messenger, Gustavo Adolfo Albizures Estrada. The assailants stole his motorcycle and questioned him about Clara Arenas, AVANCSO's Executive Director, and her relations with Dr. Mack and Helen Mack. Following a 26 February 1997 meeting between Ms. Arenas, Ms. Mack, and National Defense Minister Julio Balconi to discuss the attack on Mr. Albizures, AVANCSO received an anonymous phone call threatening to "[t]ell those bitches that wherever they go and whatever they say, we'll be watching them." On February 28, AVANCSO received a similar threat. The most recent threat of 3 March 1997 warned that the stolen motorcycle of Mr. Albizures had been burned, and that Ms. Arenas would suffer the same fate.

Not only do the threats against AVANCSO undermine the progress made by the peace accord, they violate Guatemala's international legal obligations under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the American Convention on Human Rights, including the right to personal liberty and security (Article 3 of the Universal Declaration and Article 7 of the American Convention).

(Source of information for this case includes the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights Advocacy Alert, March 1997)

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Please send telexes, telegrams, faxes, or airmail letters:

• expressing concern for the security of Ms. Arenas, Mr. Albizures, and other AVANCSO employees;
• calling for the Guatemalan government to conduct a full investigation of the continued threats against AVANCSO; and
• demanding that the Guatemalan government uphold international law under the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the American Convention on Human Rights by guaranteeing the physical security of AVANCSO employees and their ability to conduct the organization's work without intimidation.

APPEAL AND INQUIRY MESSAGES SHOULD BE SENT TO:

President Alvaro Arzu Irigoyen
Presidente de la Republica
Palacio Nacional
Ciudad de Guatemala
GUATEMALA
fax: 502-2-21-45-37


Lic. Rodolfo Mendoza
Minister of Governance
Ministro de Gobernacion
Palacio Nacional
Ciudad de Guatemala
GUATEMALA
fax: 502-2-51-53-68


General Julio Balconi
Defense Minister
Ministro de la Defensa
Palacio Nacional
Ciudad de Guatemala
GUATEMALA
fax: 502-3-32-51-18


Lic. Jorge Mario Garcia Laguardia
Human Rights Procurator
Procurador de los Derechos Humanos
12 Av. 12-17, zona 1
Ciudad de Guatemala
GUATEMALA
fax: 502-2-38-17-34

COPIES SENT TO:

Lic. Pedro Miguel Lamport
Embassy of Guatemala
2220 R St., NW
Washington, DC 20008
fax: 202-745-1908


H.E. Donald J. Planty
U.S. Embassy Unit 3303, APOAA 34024
fax: 502-331-8885

Main | CSFR Letters | Science and Human Rights Program