18 67. Article 13(2) of the Convention establishes the limits to this freedom: respect for the rights and reputation of others, or protection of national security, public order, or public health or morals, which could lead to subsequent responsibilities if they are affected unduly. Even assuming that Myrna Mack’s publications had, in some way, represented infringements of these individual or collective assets or rights – which has not been shown – it is evident that the means to punish such excesses should be adapted to the provisions of the law. It is not necessary to weigh the difference between this possible juridical response and the de facto response which occurred. 68. A right or freedom is violated not only when its exercise is absolutely prevented using methods that make it materially impracticable, but also when the conditions are created that try to make it impossible to exercise it, or involve the possessors of the right or freedom in extreme situations that signify, in reality, impediments that cannot be overcome at all or only with difficulty. Access to justice is illusory – and the individual’s judicial guarantees are violated – when the defense of the rights through legal proceedings is subject to charges or requirements that place it outside the reach of individuals (an issue that the Court will examine in the Cantos case), or when measures of intimidation are invoked that instill fear or terror in the potential petitioners, who therefore cease to exercise the rights that they nominally possess. 69. The attack on Myrna Mack Chang had the purpose – as can be seen from the file – of dissuading or punishing her conduct in relation to her research or publications; in other words, of violating the freedom of thought and expression that she nominally enjoyed under domestic legislation and the international norms that I have referred to. The acts of intimidation that the anthropologist Mack Chang endured before her death have been narrated by witnesses in this case, such as Clara Arenas Bianchi, an AVANCSO Board member (para. 126.b), Julio Edgar Cabrera Ovalle, bishop of Quiché (para. 127.a), and Helen Beatriz Mack Chang, the victim’s sister (para. 127.d). 70. Furthermore, the repression that she endured also extends to the exercise of the freedom of expression of society as a whole, because its members are prevented from imparting their ideas for fear of suffering consequences such as those that occurred in this case, or are deprived of the possibility of receiving freely the information and ideas of those whose opinions differ from what is considered acceptable by the authorities. XI. OTHER ISSUES 71. I believe that, in the future case law of the Inter-American Court, other issues may arise that appear in this judgment and in previous ones, or that they engender. For example, this Judgment reiterates the Court’s position, followed systematically in numerous judgments, that the amounts it establishes to be delivered as compensation should be returned to the State when they are not claimed by the beneficiaries in a specific period of time, if this is possible. It is worthwhile exploring the possibility of these amounts being applied to other concepts linked to human rights, in accordance with the characteristics of the case referred to in the respective judgement and, to the relevant extent, the approach concerning application of resources to a socially useful end that is closely linked to the victims, which has been outlined in other judgments such as those in the Aloeboetoe (Suriname) and the Mayagna Awas Tigni Community (Nicaragua) cases. It may be considered – although

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