Helen Mack Chang
Notre Dame Prize for Distinguished Public Service in Latin America
Introduction for Helen Mack Chang (translated from Spanish)
Guatemala City, September 7, 2005
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By James McDonald, CSC, Senior Executive Assistant. & Counselor to President John I. Jenkins
Good morning. It’s an honor to be able to represent our President Father John Jenkins and the University of Notre Dame on this occasion. Father Jenkins couldn’t be present personally although he has taken great interest in this award over the last six years and asked me to extend his personal greetings to Helen and to her family, to the representative of Coca Cola (with whom we have a longstanding positive relationship collaboration), and to our distinguished alumni and parents of present students.
For me it is always a wonderful opportunity to be able to return to Guatemala, this beautiful country, and I thank you for the warm welcome you’ve always given to me and on this occasion.
Welcome to everyone. You represent Guatemala’s civil society, the government, the diplomatic corps, the Catholic Church, the Congregation of Holy Cross, the university communities, institutions of academic research, non-governmental organizations, the press, Helen’s family and our own alumni and parents of students. We welcome all of you.
This prize celebrates distinguished public service in Latin America, a region which is very close to the heart of Notre Dame. For a second time, the Notre Dame prize for distinguished public service in Latin America celebrates a woman who has dedicated herself to human rights.
It honors us to be present with you for various reasons: first, our Catholic University is one of the best known Catholic universities in the United States. We make great effort to connect education and research with moral values; secondly, our own law faculty sponsors the Center for Civil and Human Rights, our Kroc Institute offers international studies in peace as well as the Kellogg Institute, world known for its research on democracy, human rights and peace.
This prize is given each year by the University of Notre Dame, generously underwritten by a gift from The Coca-Cola Foundation of Atlanta. I wish to thank the foundation and its representative, Rafael Fernandez Quiros, of Coca Cola (Latin Center Division) who has come to join us today.
Coca Cola is known world wide for its distinguished products; it also distinguishes itself for its support of many public activities which benefit society. They have given an example not only out their entrepreneurial activity which, of course, helps human development, but equally important is the collaboration with other activities in support of the public sector.
I would like to thank as well the committee who elected the award winner this year, Father Malloy, ex-president of Notre Dame, Sofia Macher, last year’s award winner and Senator Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, ex-ambassador to Mexico, whose tragic death in May we still mourn.
Lastly, I thank the Kellogg Institute of International Studies for organizing this event.
Helen Mack Chang, our honored guest today, is a woman of exceptional courage who has dedicated herself to the search for justice in Guatemala. She’s founder of the Myrna Mack Foundation, an organization which looks to reconcile families of victims of political crimes.
Her labors demonstrate that social stability and human progress depend on the rule of law.
With her efforts, Helen helped her sister Myrna rest in peace by assisting to bring to justice those responsible for her murder.
She has won many other awards among them the Right Livelihood Award, many times called the "alternative Nobel Prize." Today she and many more including many of you present made great efforts to construct a new country with a new future where equality before the law is the standard for resolving conflicts in society and for promoting human development in the most profound and wide sense of the term.
The history of Helen Mack began the 11th of September 1990. On that day Helen undertook an extraordinary journey from the place of a private citizen to become a spokesperson for the rights of Guatemalans.
That day the police determined that Myrna had been the victim of a crime of passion but the cause of her death was 27 stab wounds and had other indications of political retribution.
Without any legal preparation or training, Helen Mack used a provision of Guatemalan law to present her sister’s case to the courts.
For 12 years she and members of her family suffered pressure to drop the case. She persevered through all of this until the courts convicted the actual author of the crime and in 2002 the intellectual author of the crime.
Finally, the Supreme Court reestablished the conviction that had been overturned in the Appellate Court, but Colonel Juan Valencia fled and still has not been brought to justice.
Helen opened the door for many families victims of political violence to find justice and reconciliation.
In 2003, President Berger and the Guatemalan government recognized the political responsibility for her sister’s assassination. As a personal commitment, President Berger named Helen to be a member of the National Advisory Security Council and also as a member of the Commission on Strengthening Justice.
Helen Mack is the seventh person who received this prize. The other award winners; Enrique Iglesias; Patricio Aylwin; Cardinal Andres Rodriguez; Lula da Silva; Fernando Cardoso and Sofia Macher, last year.
Helen stands with dignity behind these extraordinary people who in one way or another dedicated their lives to public service.
We celebrate today, Notre Dame and Coca Cola, public service which takes many forms–political activity, church life, banking life with a development mission, law, education, many forms of public service. Today we wish to celebrate the human effort which though limited and sometimes alone can reach important changes in benefit of society. One, to underline what is essential for us: to promote the rule of law is to promote the protection of everyone and offer secure conditions to progress in every sense of the word.
One person can change the world as our much loved former president, Father Hesburgh, often says, "it is better to light a candle than to condemn the darkness."
Helen Mack Chang, it is with great honor and respect that we honor your leadership and commitment to public service, we honor you with this prize in recognition of your defense of human rights as a woman leader in your own society and as a voice for civil society in this great moment of Guatemala and history. From a far, from our University, we all take notice and celebrate your great work.
