47 Guatemala at a given time experienced a “culture of threats.” All Guatemalan society that sought to somehow react suffered threats and even attacks. For example, prosecutors who took on important cases and furthered the investigation were threatened. This included the people who were in charge of the Myrna Mack Chang case: Helen Mack Chang, the Myrna Mack Foundation, and even AVANCSO. These threats tended to deteriorate the social fabric, to curtail the capacity to make complaints and to act. Every time a prosecutor was threatened, he or she had to be replaced by another one, and the file had to be studied anew. j. Expert opinion of Henry El Khoury Jacob, attorney29 Article 30 of the Constitution of Guatemala regulates confidentiality of information in the relations between private citizens and judicial or administrative offices, and not relations among the bodies of the State. Therefore, it is not possible for any body of the executive branch of government, in face of a request by a criminal court, to reply that it does not send the information based on that article. Procedural legislation in Guatemala establishes a procedure to be followed by a judge to assess official secret in these cases. It is for the judge to decide whether they are essential for the proceeding, and if so the judge establishes the need to disclose them. In this case, the judge is the sovereign authority, and the public office cannot refuse. The Amparo, Habeas Corpus and Constitutionality Law in Guatemala is a broad one regarding the possibility of filing amparo remedies with respect to almost any procedural act by a criminal judge. In other words, based on that law, the parties have the possibility of filing amparo remedies regarding almost any decision of the court. For example, amparo remedies can be filed with respect to rejection of evidence requested by the civil actor or by the private prosecutor, or to denial of a request for photocopies of a file for the defense counsel or the civil actor or the private prosecutor, or against a measure restricting liberty, or against any other protective measure imposed upon the accused. Amparo remedies can also be filed regarding orders for investigative steps such as identity parades, search and entry orders, phone taps, mail seizure or interception. Nevertheless, the amparo remedy is a key institution for protection of individuals’ rights, but its exaggerated use can cause a “hypertrophy” of the proceedings, which can even lead to denial of justice. This danger stems from the legal text, and not from judicial practice. k. Expert opinion of Katharine Doyle, researcher30 She did not meet Myrna Mack Chang, but in 1994 she met her sister Helen. She also rendered testimony in the domestic criminal proceeding in the Mack Chang case, regarding declassified United States documents submitted by the attorneys in the 29 A Costa Rican national, he is an attorney. He is a full professor of criminal and procedural law, penal policies and criminology at Universidad de Costa Rica. He was a legislative advisor and a Deputy Justice of the Supreme Court of Justice. He gave his expert opinion on procedural matters pertaining to processing of the amparo remedies, determination of the scope of official secret, and on criminal cases under the domestic jurisdiction. 30 A United States citizen. Since 1990, she has worked for the non-governmental organization “National Security Archives,” where she is a senior analyst and heads the documentation project on Guatemala. She studies United States foreign policy, specifically with respect to human rights in countries that underwent periods of violence such as El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. She gave her expert opinion on the reality of Guatemala in the early nineties, on the extra-legal execution of Myrna Mack Chang and on declassification of documents that demonstrate that the State was involved in selective homicides at the time when Myrna Mack Chang was murdered.