88
137. In accordance with what the Court set forth in paragraphs 94 and 111, the
State acquiesced unconditionally with respect to the facts described by the
Commission in its application and the claim that the Court find that Article 4 of the
Convention was breached.
Considerations of the Court
138.
Article 4(1) of the American Convention provides that:
[e]very person has the right to have his life respected. This right shall be protected by
law and, in general, from the moment of conception. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived
of his life.
139. The Court deems that, pursuant to what was established in the chapter on
proven facts, the State is responsible for the extra-legal execution of Myrna Mack
Chang committed through actions of its agents, carrying out orders issued by the
high command of the Presidential General Staff, which constitutes a violation of the
right to life. This circumstance was worsened because at the time of the facts there
was in Guatemala a pattern of selective extra-legal executions fostered by the State,
which was directed against those individuals who were considered “internal
enemies.” Furthermore, since then and still today, there have not been effective
judicial mechanisms to investigate the human rights violations nor to punish those
responsible, all of which gives rise to an aggravated international responsibility of the
respondent State.
140. The death of Myrna Mack Chang was the result of a covert military intelligence
operation carried out by the Presidential General Staff and tolerated by various
authorities and institutions (supra para. 134.6). This military intelligence operation
had three phases.
141. The first phase was to single-out the victim in view of her professional
activity, an activity that bothered various authorities and institutions in Guatemala
(supra paras. 134.7, 134.10 and 134.11). In this regard, en 1992, the Guatemalan
Human Rights Ombudsman, Ramiro de León Carpio, based on the investigation of
the instant case, stated that:
[t]he topics of the research projects carried out by anthropologist
Myrna Mack Chang are still considered to be high risk ones, because
they affect Government policies and their conclusions may not be in
accordance with externally-oriented strategies.
[…] After an in-depth analysis of the above, one can infer, based on
presumptions, that the violation to the right to life and to the physical
integrity of Myrna Elizabeth Mack Chang was committed because of the
development of her social investigation activities, because they were
considered destabilizing vis-à-vis the order pre-established by the
Government, which was perceived by the Intelligence Section of the
National Army, who ordered and carried out this extra-legal killing.
This case constitutes a typical politically-motivated killing.235
142. Several of the expert witnesses and witnesses who appeared before the Court
also stated that Myrna Mack Chang was singled-out as a “target” or an “internal
235
Cf. report by the Human Rights Ombudsman of Guatemala dated November 9, 1992 (file with
annexes to the application, annex 47, leaves 882 to 896).
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