Where Are My Children?

Aug, 2000 - Adriana Bartow's struggle for justice
(more information on her case)

Prensa Libre - Aug. 3, 1999

A very important human rights struggle is taking place in post-war Guatemala: the fight to end impunity. The current reality is that despite the continued labor by many different sectors to bring the perpetrators to justice, the Guatemalan judicial system has yet to manage these cases in a solid and meaningful way, despite the reforms mandated of it by the Peace Accords. Three and a half years after the signing of the Accords, only a handful of violators involved have been tried and sentenced for crimes they committed during the thirty-six year civil war, in which thousands of gross violations including abductions, assassinations, and massacres occurred. Eliminating impunity is doubly important given the current reality that many of the former violators occupy government positions and continue to effect the policy on a national level, most notably, former dictator General Efrain Rios Montt. Rios Montt is responsible for some of the bloodiest years of the terror that occurred in the eighties, and now enjoys the post of President of Congress under the ruling Guatemalan Republican Front party.

One activist waging this struggle against impunity is Adriana Bartow (Portillo), a survivor of the repression in Guatemala. She currently lives in Chicago, Illinois, where she fled to escape state-sponsored violence in her country. Adriana has continued in exile to work against the repression in Guatemala and toward the obtaining of justice for the victims. She is currently acting to bring to justice the government officials responsible for the kidnaping and disappearance of five family members, three of them young children at the time of their disappearance. Recently, she joined with Rigoberta Menchú Tum in her lawsuit against several members of the Guatemalan government for crimes including genocide, terrorism, and torture.

On September 11, 1981, Adriana's ten-year old daughter Rosaura, nine-year old daughter Glenda, her eighteen-month old half-sister, her father and step-mother and her sister-in-law were taken by the security forces after a raid on the family's home and never seen again.

Adriana searched for them for two years. After continuously receiving threats from the police, she finally fled to the United States in 1983, where she and her two remaining daughters lived for several years under false names. Two years later she fell in love and married professor Jeff Bartow. She has never forgotten Glenda, Rosaura and the rest of her family. In April 1998, she filed criminal charges against top government officials, but like most legal cases in Guatemala, the process has moved at a snail's pace.

Adriana believes there is a good chance her daughters are no longer alive; she has more hope that her 18-month-old half-sister was adopted.  Portillo-Bartow brought her daughters' case to the United Nations in 1987, and in 1997, became the first witness to give oral testimony to the Commission for Historic Clarity.

Two years and four months ago, after the signing of the Peace Accords, Adriana brought charges against former Minister of the Interior Donaldo Alvarez and former police chiefs General German Chupina and Pedro Garcia Arrendondo (Manuel de Jesús Valiente Téllez, the third police chief is now deceased) for the kidnaping and forced disappearance of her two daughters, sister, father, and stepmother. Despite national press coverage in Guatemala and an effort in August 1999 to pressure the Public Ministry to move forward in the case (backed by the Alliance Against Impunity and the Archbishop's Human Rights Office), very little progress has been made on the case. "They (the Public Ministry) have been doing little things to make the appearance of an investigation." So little has been accomplished, states Portillo, "it seems as if they are protecting the perpetrators."

As the prospects became less and less hopeful that justice would be done in her case through the Guatemalan legal system, Adriana decided to become a co-plaintiff in Rigoberta Menchu's lawsuit against the Guatemalan government. At the beginning of June 2000, Adriana traveled to Spain and formally presented her declaration to Judge Guillermo Ruiz Polanco. The Menchu lawsuit is similar in several aspects to the case which led to a one-year detention in England of former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet for crimes of genocide and terrorism during his lengthy rule as dictator through military coup. Although Pinochet was eventually allowed to return home by British authorities for medical grounds and never made trial, the case continues to resonate throughout the world by demonstrating that human rights violators cannot presume to hide under a lifetime mantle of impunity, their crimes remaining unpunished. It also illustrated that the victims of these violations, deprived of the right to justice in their own countries, can voice their testimony through international means.

Menchu Tum's lawsuit, which she originally presented in Spanish court in December 1999, accuses eight Guatemalan military and civil leaders of genocide, terrorism, murder, torture, and illegal detention. Several human rights organizations and individual families have joined in Menchu's case, among them the National Coordinator of Widows in Guatemala (CONVAVIGUA) for the case of San Andrés Sajcabajá, El Quiché; The Association of Family Members of the Detained and Disappeared (FAMDEGUA) -- for the cases of the massacres in Dos Erres and Panzos --, the Labor Federation of Worker Commissions of Spain; the Association against Torture; and the families of journalist and writer Alaide Foppa, and of Spanish priests Faustino Villanueva and Jose Maria Gran Cirera. Rigoberta Menchu's father, Vicente Menchu, was killed in 1980, when Guatemalan security forces assaulted and burned down the Spanish Embassy, causing the deaths of 39 Guatemalan and Spanish citizens. Her case was formally accepted by the Spanish court on March 27th, by judge Guillermo Ruiz Polanco. Menchu has expressed that she will ask the National Audience of Spain that an order of capture be emitted against the implicated persons.

Prensa Libre - Aug. 4, 1999
The eight persons accused are General Efrain Rios Montt, de facto head of state between 1982 and 1983; Fernando Romeo Lucas Garcia, president 1981-1982; Oscar Humberto Mejia Victores, head of state,1983-1986; former head of the Presidential Guard, Benedicto Lucas Garcia; ex-Mister of Defense, Anibal Guevara; and Donaldo Alvarez Ruiz, German Chupina Barahona, and Pedro Garcia Arredondo, who are also the accused in the case presented by Adriana with the Guatemalan Public Ministry. All these are named as responsible for gross human rights violations in both the report "Recuperation of the Historical Memory" or REMHI, produced by the Archbishop's Human Rights Office, and "Guatemala, Memory of Silence" by the Historical Clarification Commission. Both documents were the product of thousands of interviews with survivors of the civil war in Guatemala.

When asked about her principle hopes in terms of the outcome of the lawsuit, Adriana answered: "Of course, for those responsible to be brought to justice; that they be extradited and detained. I also want to know what happened - I want to know the truth behind the disappearances of my children and other family members."

A climate of insecurity still exists in Guatemala, and bringing charges against powerful present and former members of the government is not without its risks. Despite the official end of the war, many serious human rights violations do persist. The last two months have seen an upsurge of threats and intimidation directed at journalists, unionists, and other activists. Menchu has received death threats and a defendant in the case has attempted to sue her as a "traitor to the Nation." Bartow states that other plaintiffs in the suit have received threats as well. She shares that she does have extra protection given that she lives in the U.S. and is an American citizen, but nonetheless plans to take extra measures to ensure her safety when she travels in Guatemala.

Adriana is also actively working to assist other families who have experienced the loss of a child through political violence. She founded "Where are the Children?", an organization dedicated to investigating the whereabouts of children disappeared as a result of political repression in Guatemala. (Or all of Latin America?). Recently, the organization opened an office on Chicago's West Side, and in July will be opening another office, in Guatemala City. Providing support to "Where are the Children?" in Guatemala will be the Alliance Against Impunity, the Rigoberta Menchu Foundation, and HIJOS. The office in Guatemala is already staffed and in the process of identifying families who have lost children in the war and are interested in working with the organization. Adriana points out that her case is representative of the experience of many Guatemalans, as the Historical Clarification Commission has indicated in its report that 7% of the victims of the repression and civil war were children.

Currently, defendants in the Menchu lawsuit are attempting to have the lawsuit thrown out of court. A dismissal has already been requested once, but was denied by the judge. Adriana states that according to Spanish law, a dismissal can only be requested twice; if these two requests are denied, then the case must be allowed to proceed. If the judge denies this request -- a decision should be made sometime in July -- the case will begin in September (court is in recess over the summer), and witnesses will be called.

Recent events in Guatemalan Congress seem to indicate that the margin of recourse for victims to seek justice via the Guatemalan legal system for crimes committed during the armed conflict seems to be shrinking, rather than widening. A bill has been presented which seeks to give the military a complete amnesty for all crimes committed during the armed conflict.

Speaking of the efforts of victims to bring the perpetrators to justice, Adriana states, " We are looking not for revenge, but justice." She encourages individuals with their own cases to join the lawsuit with Rigoberta Menchu. These cases can include family members of victims of massacres, extrajudicial executions, and illegal detentions and disappearances.

Photos of Adriana Bartow's daughters and sister are posted on the website of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children: http://www.missingKids.org .

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