Columns:: Trying times: Geography professor studies the state of academic freedom in Guatemala

since 12/15/98

Columns::October 28, 2002

Spreading the wealth: University announces plans to buy, sell properties
Open-enrollment period under way for health insurance
Hollowell to receive honorary degree at Commencement
Four named Fellows by American Academy of Advancement of Science
Dedication is held at new Center for Applied Genetic Technologies
Dunning announces leadership changes at Georgia Center
Special delivery: Professor works to improve efficacy of cancer drugs
Senior public service associate makes workplaces work better
Administrative Changes
Kudos
Into an artist’s world

Campus News

Trying times
Geography professor studies the state of academic freedom in Guatemala

By Beth Roberts
beth@uga.edu

Amy Ross, an assistant professor in the geography department, spent some time this past summer in the Netherlands

As a geographer, Amy Ross is interested in how different scales might influence power and violence. (Photo by Peter Frey)

observing the war crimes trial of Slobodan Milosovic, and in September traveled to Guatemala for the opening of the trial of army officers accused of ordering the death-squad murder of Myrna Mack, a Guatemalan anthropologist. While she was writing her report about that trial, she took time out to explain the project to Columns.

Columns: What were you doing in Guatemala?

Ross: I went to Guatemala with a delegation that was organized and sponsored by the Latin American Studies Association. It was great to be invited to go, and the delegation itself was very successful, but our visit confirmed many of our concerns about the threats right now in Guatemala and our lack of any real concrete response.
LASA sent this delegation because many of the attacks right now in Guatemala are against members of the academic community. We were specifically concerned about academic freedom in Guatemala. So our mandate was to meet with our Guatemalan colleagues and peers and record and document the threats that they were under. We also met with the vice president of Guatemala, and then we were also there to observe the first stage of the trial.

Columns: The trial dealt with the murder of an academic, right?

Ross: Yes. The trial dealt with the 1990 murder of a Guatemalan anthropologist. Her case was both common and unique. It’s common because 200,000 people were killed in Guatemala, and she was one of them. It’s unique because this case is going to trial and the others didn’t--so in that sense it’s exceptional.
The attack against Myrna Mack was an attack against the very idea that one can investigate the social reality of one’s country. She had been doing research in the Guatemalan highlands with displaced populations and as an anthropologist she was studying how village life had been transformed in these communities.
She was stabbed to death 27 times at the door of the office at 7 o’clock at night on Sept. 11, 1990. I was in Guatemala at the time--I knew her.

Columns: But the trial has begun.

Ross: Twelve years later, after dozens of judges have left the case and either resigned or fled the country. Witnesses have been killed.
The first chief investigator of this case put together a report in 1991 that indicated that it was a political crime--the government had maintained that it was a common crime, a mugger on the street.
His report, which was very bold and brave at the time, was submitted in August of 1991, and he was shot to death days later, just yards away from the front of the national police building in Guatemala City.

Columns: So LASA sent you as courtroom observers?

Ross: Yes. There are six of us working on the project, from campuses around the United States. The Latin American Studies Association will publish our report on the state of academic freedom in Guatemala in their quarterly bulletin. We also have specific recommendations for LASA, for what the organization can do to support academic freedom in Guatemala.
Unfortunately, we came away with the frightening feeling that there was little we could do. We’re setting up a kind of bank account for emergency exits, specifically for academics. We’re also going to set up an account where people can donate airline miles.
We were careful when we talked to the press in Guatemala not to be identified as a human rights organization. Partially that was for security, but in part it was because we were trying to say we’re not just here to help Guatemala, we’re here because we ourselves are concerned about the state of knowledge in the world. It’s ridiculous--I can go to Guatemala and conduct interviews that my Guatemalan colleagues can’t. And we all suffer from a climate in which one person can’t conduct research.

Columns: How much of this is directly related to your research?

Ross: This was more applied geography than research. It relates to my work in the sense that my main interest is in power and violence--in the relationship between the construction of power and violence and the creation of space. As a geographer, I’m interested in how different scales might influence power and violence.
As a concrete example: somebody can be considered a war hero in Belgrade and be considered a war criminal in the Hague. I’m looking at these different regimes of accountability and in what ways people can be brought to justice. I want to know what impact it has when it occurs in the Hague instead of in Belgrade, or in Guatemala City instead of Brussels. This family--Myrna Mack’s family--could have brought this case against the Guatemalan military to the international court in Brussels. But they wanted to do it in Guatemala. They’re getting death threats, and their families have had to leave the country. And it’s those kinds of questions I’m asking in my research--about how and where the jurisdiction occurs influences the process itself as well as the broader social implications.

Columns: So you’re focusing on the theoretical construct more than on the political position, on taking sides?

Ross: Yes. I do take sides--I’m interested in seeing responses to genocide and crimes against humanity, so I’m in disagreement with the Bush administration’s position on the international criminal court. But I would say that that’s my scholar’s response, not a political position.

UGA Today supports QuickTime, Flash, RealPlayer and Acrobat Reader (PDF files).
Download information about these plug-ins.
Affiliate icons for UGA Today

COLUMNS ] UGA Today ] Subscribe ] News Bureau ]
Office of Public Affairs Directory ] Photo Services ]
Broadcast, Video & Photography ] Master Calendar]
Columns ] Georgia Magazine ]Visitors Center ]
UGA Home ] Alumni ] Admissions ] UGA Directories ]
Sports ] Weather ] Search UGA sites ]

Columns is produced by the UGA News Service, a unit of UGA Public Affairs.
Beth Roberts: Columns editor, Juliett Dinkins: Columns managing editor,
Janet Beckley: Columns art director. Peter Frey: Columns photo editor

Questions or comments should be directed to columns@uga.edu