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 BRUCE HARRIS RECEIVES OBE IN QUEEN'S HONOURS LIST.                  

These two photos. Bruce Harris with H.M. Queen Elizabeth II when she came to inaugurate the Casa Alianza in Kettering in June 2001.

Press Release by W. E. GUTMAN. NEW

January 19th, 2004 

SHOOT THE MESSENGER.

 The Cabal to Silence Bruce Harris: Probe into illegal adoptions and revelations of corruption in high places, inspires spurious lawsuit against child welfare advocate. QUOTE: "No one likes the bearer of bad news." -- Antigone, line 277, Sophocles (496-406 B.C.E.) BY W. E. GUTMAN, GUATEMALA CITY -- Journalists and whistle-blowers have one thing in common: they are often perceived as insufferable meddlers. Both appeal to the truth, one in service of historicity, the other in the interest of transparency. Their disclosures are seldom appreciated. In marginally democratic nations both are feared and reviled. Being watchdog and message-bearer to the multitudes is a tall order, especially for an institution as fragile as the press. The task takes on Herculean dimensions when the truth is uttered, not by an accredited newsman, but by an eminent and respected human rights activist. Take the curious case of Guatemala vs. Bruce Harris, a travesty of justice fraught with sinister overtones. Harris, the charismatic head of Casa Alianza, an advocacy group serving homeless children in Latin America, has been the target of persistent judicial shenanigans by the state of Guatemala. His crime: aiding and abetting in the investigation of illegal adoptions. The case has since mutated into a fraudulent defamation of character lawsuit by the plaintiffs. Postponed several times his trial, now scheduled for January 22, could cost Harris his freedom. Harris' defense has been further compromised by Guatemala's assertion that, not being a journalist, he has no freedom of speech. Only Guatemala, known for its brutal treatment of incorruptible journalists, would have the effrontery to resort to such sophistry. TWO SYSTEMS, BOTH SHADY. International adoptions from Guatemala, which has the weakest Statutes in Central America, rose dramatically in the past few years. There are two ways to adopt a child in Guatemala -- private and "official." The first is handled by attorneys, generally at the behest of young, poor, multiparous mothers. By law, the mother can stop the adoption process at any time, a right rarely spelled out -- or enforced. Despondent and economically strapped, mothers are treated by attorneys to quality prenatal, delivery and post-partum care -- a benevolence the attorneys are quick to levy against mothers who decide to keep their babies. The private system invites both coercion and corruption. Although mothers must, by law, submit to an interview with the Solicitor General's Office and the adoptive parents' diplomatic representative, attorneys often threaten mothers with dire consequences if they back down. The "official" system takes precedence when an infant has been declared legally abandoned by a juvenile court judge. The State becomes the "birth mother" and acts to protect the child's best interests. While this form of adoption appears to be more reliable, collusion between judges and attorneys for the adoptive parents is a recurrent problem. HARRIS SMELLS A RAT Casa Alianza-Guatemala had a formal agreement with the Solicitor General's Office under which the organization is empowered to share intelligence and lend its expertise in investigations of civil and human rights violations of Guatemalan minors. In 1997, Casa Alianza was asked to help investigate the trafficking of babies from Chiapas, Mexico to San Marcos and Guatemala City, and, from there, to overseas destinations. The probe yielded immediate and unsettling results: babies were being systematically stolen, bought or tricked out of their mothers' arms then issued forged birth certificates. Casa Alianza also found that Public Registrars were routinely bribed and that midwives were paid to attest to being present at births that did not occur. A perfect stranger was then paid about $50 to act as the birth mother. Warned of the consequences of perjury if she snitched, the unwitting accomplice was then dispatched to Guatemala City. Once there, she "voluntarily" surrendered the infant to attorneys who, for $15,000 -- and in the absence of DNA testing linking the infant to the fake mother -- arranged for the baby to be promptly flown out of the country by its adoptive parents. In September 1997, the Solicitor General's Office called a press conference at which, Casa Alianza, represented by Bruce Harris, was invited to take part. Also present were Carmela Curup, head of the Juvenile section of the Solicitor General's Office, and Asisclo Valladares, then Solicitor General, who had high praise for Casa Alianza's work. Results of the joint investigation were publicly released, along with a list of 15 criminal complaints that had been filed with the Public Prosecutor's Office. One of the complaints alleged that attorney Susana Maria Luarca Saracho de Umaņa, wife of the former President of Guatemala's Supreme Court, Ricardo Umaņa [now a Supreme Court Magistrate] had routinely engaged in influence peddling and solicitation of favors. She was explicitly accused of pressuring public officials to overlook her illicit adoption schemes. Later that month, Mrs. Umaņa accused Bruce Harris of defamation, perjury and slander. Contrary to international law, defamation is considered a criminal, rather than civil, offense in Guatemala.  Two days later, the 4th Tribunal of Criminal Sentencing hastily agreed to reconvene for a conciliation hearing in October. Casa Alianza was officially notified of this decision on September 30. A sheaf of documents was found wedged into the door of Casa Alianza's Crisis Center in Guatemala City. Conspicuously absent from the dossier was Mrs. Umaņa's formal complaint. That same day, Casa Alianza returned the incomplete dossier to the Tribunal with a letter notifying the court of its oversight. Harris subsequently questioned the competence and impartiality of the Tribunal.  Casa Alianza promptly retained an attorney. At the October hearing, in a Kafkaesque scheme to frustrate the defense, the Tribunal repudiated Harris' attorney. It also reprimanded Harris for being absent at the hearing.  The Tribunal was subsequently petitioned to withdraw from the case, which was transferred to the 5th Tribunal. In November, the Human Rights Office of the Archdiocese of Guatemala took over Harris' defense. To date the new Tribunal has rejected every petition for reconsideration filed by the defense. In June 1998 the court cleared the way for a criminal trial.  LEGAL LAWLESSNESS?  Guatemala's legal system is notoriously slow. Of the 385 lawsuits instituted by Casa Alianza over the past ten years in cases involving violence against minors, only 15 were successfully prosecuted -- not for lack of incontrovertible evidence, but because the courts refused to examine the evidence. The criminal case against Harris appears to be unusually -- and suspiciously -- hasty. If convicted, he faces a stiff prison term of up to five years in an overcrowded Guatemalan cell.  In Guatemala, "the truth" is not a defense in arguing against a charge of slander. Clearly, and in flagrant violation of both the American Convention on Human Rights and Article 35 of the Guatemalan Constitution, the courts have prejudged Harris and unilaterally concluded that constitutional guarantees of freedom of expression do not apply to him. The 5th Tribunal's rationale appears all the more skewed considering that Harris' chief accuser -- Susana Maria Luarca Saracho de Umaņa - was herself the subject of at least two criminal investigations, and that the "defamatory" charges leveled against her at a public press conference and in the presence of Guatemala's Attorney General, proved to be accurate and fitting. Indeed, Mrs. Umaņa was then ordered to return two infants destined for adoption in the U.S. to their birth mothers. Casa Alianza and the Archbishop's legal office were instrumental in reuniting the infants with their mothers, who had been tricked into giving them up.  Disregarding Harris' ad honorem status with the Solicitor General's Office and his participation in that capacity at the press conference, the Tribunal now further contends that Bruce Harris is not a journalist and  therefore had no right to attend a press conference at which allegations -- legitimate or not -- were being aired in public. The Tribunal continues to deny Harris the right to summon the Solicitor General's Office for  corroboration.  Guatemala's insistence that the truth is not a justifiable defense and that freedom of expression excludes the right to speak up against verifiable crime and injustice bodes ill for a nation whose violent past and somber present continue to be the subject of scrutiny. Underlying the Harris case, and regardless of the outcome, is the nagging reminder that in Guatemala, despite claims to the contrary, transparent politics, justice and a respect for fundamental rights are nebulous objectives, not a priority. W. E. Gutman is a veteran investigative journalist on regular assignment in Central America. He lives and works in southern California and may be contacted at weg@bak.rr.com  Mr. Gutman has given permission for this article to be published without charge. Please give credit to the author. 

 "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of moral  crisis, maintain their neutrality".  Dante 1265-1321.  

FREEDOM OF SPEECH ON TRIAL IN GUATEMALA

July 23rd, 2002.

Casa Alianza's Director of Latin American programs goes on trial in Guatemala next month in a case that tests the freedom of speech of human rights defenders who speak out publicly against violations in a country trying to move from decades of military dictatorships to democracy.

The 12th Criminal Court of Guatemala has set August 16th as the date for Bruce Harris, Casa Alianza's Regional Director for Latin American programs, to go on trial for defamation. The Englishman faces up to five years in jail for having spoken out about the involvement of lawyers and notaries in questionable activities in Guatemala's lucrative international adoption business.

Harris was a guest of Guatemala's Attorney General, Asisclo Valladares at a September 1997 press conference where they announced the findings of a six-month joint investigation into the illegal trafficking of Guatemalan and Mexican babies who were sent to other countries through international adoptions.

Harris is accused of defamation by Susana Luarca (formerly Susana de Umana), a notary and lawyer, involved in a series of allegations of questionable international adoptions. Luarca, a Mexican by birth yet naturalized Guatemalan, was at the time married to the President of the Guatemalan Supreme Court, Ricardo Umana. They have since separated. According to the joint investigation between the Guatemalan Attorney General and Casa Alianza, Umana would use her position to pressure court employees and judges to facilitate her adoption cases.

International adoptions from Guatemala cost adoptive parents between US$ 15,000 and US$ 25,000 each and more than 2,300 adoptions were completed in 2001, making babies one of the most successful non-traditional exports from the Central American country. Guatemala, which has no law to regulate adoptions, exports more babies per capita through international adoptions than any other country in the world. Umana is also a legal advisor to an orphanage run by an American woman from where many international adoptions take place.

A few days after the 1997 press conference, Umana de Luarca slapped a defamation suit against Harris, accusing him of defamation, perjury and slander. She did not sue the Attorney General, who's office had to investigate questionable adoptions.

Harris, who has been defended by the Human Rights Office of the Archdiocese of Guatemala amongst others, argued that Article 35 of the Guatemalan Constitution protects freedom of expression and the Constitutional Law requires that a "Printers Tribunal" should resolve any accusations of defamation. But the Guatemalan judiciary, all the way to the Constitutional Court, sided with Umana and stated that Harris did not have freedom of expression "because he is not a journalist" and have refused to convene a Printers Tribunal, leaving the case in a criminal court.

Several international human rights and freedom of expression groups, including the University of Notre Dame Law School, had written Amicus briefs for the Guatemalan Constitutional Court supporting Harris' legal arguments, but without effect.

The Center for Justice and International Law, CEJIL, a legal group that supports victims of human rights violations, presented the case to the Inter American Commission of Human Rights - a structure of the Organization of American States - in Washington. The Commission has accepted the case against the State of Guatemala for allegedly violating Harris' rights of Freedom of Expression and Equality under the Law, both protected by the American Convention on Human Rights. The case, number 12,352, may take several years to reach a conclusion.

"In the past, those with power have tried to shut us up with bullets", commented Harris, referring to an armed attack against his life in Casa Alianza's Guatemalan center in the early 1990s. "Now they are trying to do the same through quasi legal moves in the Guatemalan judiciary which has not always been known for it's total transparency".

In Guatemala, defamation is a criminal case that carries up to a five-year jail term and a case where, according to the Guatemalan Criminal Code, truth is no defense. If the five person Printers Tribunal finds that defamation did take place, the maximum sentence the judge can impose is six months of house arrest.

Harris is concerned that a Constitutional Court ruling that dictates that only journalists have freedom of expression is a dangerous legal precedent in a country renowned for human rights violations. "This is not just a case against me, this is an attempt by powerful interests to maintain a stranglehold on a society that yearns for peace and democracy. But without freedom of speech, neither will exist".

As a result of the 1997 press conference, which drew the world's attention to illegal adoptions in Guatemala, many countries - including Canada, Spain, the UK, Ireland, and Holland, amongst others - have stopped all adoptions from Guatemala. The UN Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children reported, after a 1998 visit that "the majority of adoptions from Guatemala are illegal".

In 1998, the United States, which receives more than 60% of Guatemala's adopted children, instigated obligatory DNA testing between the baby and the supposed biological mother.

Harris filed a counter suit against Luarca, which will be heard on July 31st in the same court.