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Letter of Appeal from the AAAS Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility

27 June 2000

Lic. Alfonso Portillo Cabrera
6a Avenida A 4-18
Zona 1
Ciudad de Guatemala, GUATEMALA
Fax: 011022214423

Your Excellency:

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the largest organization of natural and social scientists in the United States, and the world's largest federation of scientific organizations, with 143,000 individual members and 273 affiliated groups. Our AAAS Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility was formed in 1976 to protect the human rights of scientists and to deal with issues relating to scientific freedom worldwide.

On behalf of the Committee, I am writing to express our deep concern about Mayra Angelina Gutiérrez Hernández, a psychology professor at the Rafael Landivar University in Huehuetenango, Guatemala. The Committee has received information indicating that Sra. Gutiérrez was last seen 7 April 2000. Her family and colleagues fear that her disappearance may be for political reasons.

The Committee requests information concerning the whereabouts of Mayra Angelina Gutiérrez Hernández whose disappearance may have been in retaliation for her research on illegal adoption practices in Guatemala.

If this is the case, we respectfully point out that the disappearance of Mayra Angelina Gutiérrez Hernández constitutes a serious violation of international human rights standards, including basic protections listed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as protections listed in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the American Convention on Human Rights, both of which Guatemala has adopted.

Specific protections include:
· the right to life, liberty and security of person;
· freedom from arbitrary arrest, detention, or exile;
· the right to freedom of opinion and expression without interference and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers.

The Committee respectfully requests a prompt investigation into the disappearance of Mayra Angelina Gutiérrez Hernández, and that any findings would be made available to the public. If Sra. Gutiérrez is detained by any civil or military authority, the Committee also requests that her safety be guaranteed, that she be granted access to a lawyer, medical attention and her family, and that she be promptly brought before a competent court or else released. We would be indebted to you for any information concerning Sra. Gutiérrez.

Sincerely,



Irving Lerch
Chair
AAAS Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility

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