Allison Davenport, Latin American Studies

Human rights does not stand alone in Guatemala. It is linked to other political and economic issues facing the country, according to Guatemalan Human Rights Leader Helen Mack.

"Security must be redefined to mean not just national, but economic security," Mack said, noting that 80 percent of Guatemalans live in poverty today, as opposed to 70 percent just 15 years ago. Fiscal reform is essential to sustaining the peace process, she said.

The president and founder of the Myrna Mack Foundation, Mack spoke about human rights and the rule of law in Guatemala following the 1996 Peace Accords at the Institute of International Studies in November. Named after Mack's sister, the Guatemalan anthropologist killed in 1990, The Myrna Mack Foundation advocates for judicial reform and the establishment of law in the Central American country. Her visit was sponsored by CLAS, The Department of Ethnic Studies and The Human Rights Center.

Before Myna Mack's death, widely considered to be by military forces, her work was dedicated to showing the effects of the military's scorched earth campaign against indigenous Mayan communities in the 1980's. "When Myrna died, they killed the voice of displaced peoples," Helen Mack said.

Mack has carried on her sister's crusade, defending those victimized by military repression in the country. False police findings and attempts to bury her sister's case prompted her to act. With the support of the international and academic communities, pressure was put on Guatemalan officials to forge an independent investigation of her sister's murder.

The support and advocacy work of UC Berkeley faculty were essential in pushing officials to begin the investigation, she said. "It helped make the case more than just another Guatemalan death," she said. As a result, compared to other examples of human rights cases in the country, her sister's has gone further in the judicial system than any other and is the only one that has the possibility of being brought to justice, she said.

Despite the unprecedented progress of her sister's case, the 1994 Defense of Human Rights Treaty and the 1996 Peace Accords, Helen Mack questions whether "the judicial system can be strengthened if there is no political will." In her estimation, 99 percent of the country has been effected by violence.

And, the most recent attempt to heal the country - last year's Project for the Recovery of Historical Memory organized by the Catholic Church - brought on another round of violence when Bishop Juan Jose Gerardi was brutally murdered following the release of his report, which was critical of government officials. As in the Mack case, police officials have made a succession of false explanations for Gerardi's death, including a crime of passion by a gay lover and fellow priest.

"All of the players in the Gerardi case are linked to the military," Mack said, adding that the murder was both an indication of the military's continuing impunity and a declaration by these forces that "If we can kill a bishop, we can kill anybody."

Mack acknowledges the progress and the success of many efforts to stabilize and heal the country. But she said, "The Peace Accords are only the base of the discussion about the society we want." The fear to organize and speak out remain in a nation where people are threatened with violence for any seeming opposition. "More space, more consciousness [is needed] to reclaim the space that impacts public opinion," she said.