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arrest without a court order, which I refused to do because I would be or was breaking
the law, so I told him that I could not do it. Then, as a reprisal he decided to dismiss me
from that position, to conduct an investigation, to fabricate crimes that I had never
committed. Afterwards, they made it public in all the media, both in the written press
and on television, that I am a criminal, and surveillance became more intense, and
there were five attempts against my life in which friends of mine were also wounded by
bullets, and I could not live at my house because my house was being watched and it
was also being fired at, and this forced me into exile in Canada. And well, I would like
to say that I am alive when, according to the patterns and procedures that were
designed at one time by the intelligence bodies, I should be dead like my colleague
Mérida Escobar died. And I would like to say that my only sin, our only sin was to
receive orders and carry out our functions as policemen.
192. It has also been established in the instant Judgment that three witness in the
criminal proceeding were harassed and threatened, their lives and personal safety
were at risk, and they decided to go into exile in Canada. Two of the witnesses, Juan
Marroquín Tejeda and José Tejeda Hernández, recognized one of the two attackers of
Myrna Mack Chang as Noel de Jesús Beteta Álvarez; and witness Virgilio Rodríguez
noted that the victim’s house was being watched by at least three individuals, one of
whom was Noel de Jesús Beteta Álvarez (supra para. 134.99). In this regard, Virgilio
Rodríguez testified before the Court that when he read in the newspaper that the
policeman who had interviewed him “had been machine-gunned at the corner of the
General Directorate of the Police,” he decided to leave the country because “I
thought that what happened to that person was also going to happen to me” (supra
para. 127.b).
193. The above leads to the conclusion that the murder of policeman José Mérida
Escobar, the harassment and threats against Judge Henry Monroy Andrino and
witnesses Julio Pérez Ixcajop, Juan Marroquín Tejeda, José Tejeda Hernández,
Virgilio Rodríguez and Rember Larios Tobar was aimed at making them fearful so
that they would desist from cooperating in the search for the truth and, therefore, to
obstruct the judicial development of the proceeding to punish all those responsible
for the extra-legal execution of Myrna Mack Chang.
194. With respect to the staff of the Myrna Mack Foundation and of AVANCSO, they
were also harassed and threatened several times, for which reason the Commission
asked the Court to adopt provisional measures in favor of the former, and this Court
decided to adopt them (supra para. 58).
195. Likewise, the next of kin of Myrna Mack Chang have suffered numerous
threats and acts of harassment. Specifically, Helen Mack Chang, sister of the victim,
has suffered them constantly and, in response to a request by the Commission for
provisional measures in her favor, the Court ordered the State to adopt such
measures as might be necessary to protect her life and her right to humane
treatment (supra para. 58). After hearing the testimony and expert opinions during
the public hearing at its seat, this Court, upon its own motion, ordered the State to
adopt provisional measures in favor of the following immediate next of kin of the
victim: Zoila Chang Lau, the mother; Marco Mack Chang, brother; Freddy Mack
Chang, brother; Vivian Mack Chang, sister; Ronald Chang Apuy, cousin; Lucrecia
Hernández Mack, daughter; and the children of the latter (supra para. 61). At the
same time, the Court also ordered expansion of the provisional measures in favor of
expert witness Iduvina Hernández, who rendered her statement before this Court
(supra para. 61).
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