Guatemala Project Home > Guatemalan Military Logbook
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Helen Mack, right, with lawyers Roxanna Altholz and Carmen Atkins present the case before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Washington, DC |
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The death squad dossier, smuggled out of Guatemalan military intelligence files in 1999, is the only known document of its kind, revealing the fate of scores of Guatemalan citizens who were “disappeared” by the army during the mid-1980s. The military logbook is now the focus of collective legal action being brought by more than a dozen of the families of victims before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The case is expected to set an important precedent for the use of official records in human rights cases in Guatemala, as well as serve as a prod to the Guatemalan Public Ministry to advance the case nationally, where it has been stalled for years due to lack of political will. Kate Doyle has worked closely with lawyers and staff of the Myrna Mack Foundation (the organization coordinating the families), and Roxanna Altholz, lead attorney for the families, of the Berkeley Human Rights Law Clinic.
In October 2007, Kate Doyle gave expert testimony before the Inter-American Human Rights Commission, providing her assessment that the death squad activities recorded in the logbook were orchestrated by the Presidential General Staff (Estado Mayor Presidential—EMP) and carried out by members of the EMP’s intelligence unit, called the Archivo. [See video of IAHRC testimony, and previous posting on the Death Squad Dossier] The Commission is now in the process of deciding if the case will proceed to the Inter-American Human Rights Court.
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