A Test of Justice: LCHR Report on the Myrna Mack Murder Trial

On September 3, 2002, three army officers went on trial in Guatemala City for ordering and orchestrating the 1990 murder of Myrna Mack Chang, an anthropologist who documented abuses by security forces against rural indigenous people during Guatemala’s civil war. One month later, in a split decision by the three-judge civilian panel of the Third Trial Court for Criminal Matters, Drug- and Environmentally-Related Crime (hereafter, “the court”), Colonel Juan Valencia Osorio was found guilty of murder. His two colleagues were acquitted. These were the first senior military officials to go to trial for human rights abuses committed during that country’s 36-year civil war, which ended in 1996. The conviction of Colonel Valencia Osorio is under appeal, as are the acquittals of his fellow officers. The present report outlines the legal and political background to the trial, explains its history and importance to Guatemala and assesses the question of whether justice was done during the one-month trial that ended on October 3, 2002. It also summarizes Guatemalan and international legal standards regarding fair trial and assesses the lead-up to the trial as well as the trial itself and the verdict.

To request a hard copy of the report, please contact Kristin Flood, tel.: 212-845-5298

Read Executive Summary of "Test of Justice"

Read Entire Text of "Test of Justice"

Read the LCHR Press Release on This Issue