Guatemalan Colonel Juan Valencia embraces his wife after being absolved
and freed, in Guatemala City, May 7, 2003. A Guatemalan appeals court
judge on Wednesday freed Valencia, who had been sentenced to 30 years
in jail for ordering the 1990 stabbing murder of anthropologist Myrna
Mack, citing contradictions in the case. The sentence had been
considered a partial victory for rights groups who had watched the
trial closely. Mack's slaying has come to symbolize the impunity of the
military in a country it once ruled with an iron fist. REUTERS/Luis
Echeverria

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