Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 10:56:45 -0400
From: Lizzy Poole <lizzy-AT-cybertours.com>
Subject: Re: [Fwd: Bruce Harris/Casa Allianza - Child care advocate caught indefamation case]


Please read, send on to your lists and friends, and contact the embassy. Let's
help save this
guy - looks like Imeldas are everywhere. Lizzy

> Subject: Bruce Harris/Casa Allianza - Child care advocate caught in
>      defamation case
> Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 13:15:43 EDT
> From: Carrietry-AT-AOL.COM
> Reply-To: Human Rights Activities <HUMRTS-L-AT-AMERICAN.EDU>
> To: HUMRTS-L-AT-AMERICAN.EDU
>
> It is with grave concern that I write to ask you to draft a letter on behalf
> of Bruce Harris, Executive Director of Casa Alianza, the Latin American
> subsidiary of Covenant House.  Mr. Harris, an internationallyh known and
> respected child care advocate, oversees and directs the operations of Casa
> Alianza located in Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Mexico.  The Government
> of Guatemala is conducting a case against Mr. Harris, a British subject, for
> defamation, perjury and slander.
>
> Mr. Harris discovered that an adoption ring in Guatemala City is tricking and
> blackmailing poor women into giving up their babies for adoption abroad (a
> majority of them bound for the United States).  Sometimes the baby traffickers
> provide pre-natal care in return for an illiterate mother’s thumbprint on a
> blank piece of paper or a document she doesn’t understand.  Once the child is
> born, the mother finds out that she has "legally" signed away her baby.
>
> While investigating instances of the trafficking of babies at the request of
> the Solicitor General of Guatemala, Bruce Harris appeared with the Solicitor
> General at a press conference at which Mr. Harris is said to have alleged that
> Susana Maria Luarca Saracho de Umana had used "undue influence" with
> government authorities in facilitating international adoptions.  Ms. Umana is
> wife of the then President and current Magistrate of the Guatemalan Supreme
> Court, Ricardo Umana.
>
> Following the press conference, Ms. Umana accused Bruce Harris of defamation,
> perjury and slander.  The case was presented in the 4th Tribunal of Criminal
> Sentencing.  In Guatemala, defamation is considered as a criminal rather than
> a civil offense of international law and truth is no defense.  A 5th Tribunal
> has been instead assigned and to date the new Tribunal has rejected every
> petition for reconsideration Mr. Harris’ lawyer has presented and in June
> cleared the way for a trial to take place.  Uncharacteristically, Mr. Harris’
> case is moving at extraordinary speed.
>
> If convicted, Harris faces two to five years in one of Guatemala’s prisons,
> where his cellmates would include some of the 15 ex-cops he helped get
> convicted for murdering and mutilating street children.
>
> Letters and phone calls on this matter should be directed to Guatemala’s
> Ambassador to the United States, Pedro Miguel Lamport.  His address:  Embassy
> of Guatemala, 2220 R Street, NW, Washington DC  20008.  The phone number:
> (202) 745-4952.