Harbury, Jennifer K. 1951–

PERSONAL:

Born 1951, in Baltimore, MD; married Efrain Bamaca Velasquez (a Mayan resistance leader; deceased). Education: Attended Cornell University; Harvard Law School, J.D.

ADDRESSES:

Home— Washington, DC.

CAREER:

Practicing lawyer; has worked with legal aid bureau on the Texas-Mexican border, c. 1980s.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award, 1995; Cavallo Award for Moral Courage, 1997.

WRITINGS:

Bridge of Courage: Life Stories of the Guatemalan Compañeros and Compañeras, Common Courage Press (Monroe, ME), 1994, updated edition, 1995.

Searching for Everardo: A Story of Love, War, and the CIA in Guatemala, Warner Books (New York, NY), 1997.

Truth, Torture, and the American Way: The History and Consequences of U.S. Involvement in Torture, Beacon Press (Boston, MA), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS:

Jennifer K. Harbury is an attorney who has written about human rights abuses, including the American use of torture on suspected terrorists. Although an activist before she met her late husband, Efrain Bamaca Velasquez, a Mayan resistance leader in Guatemala who was known as "Everardo" by his admirers, Harbury became even more dedicated to her cause after the torture and murder of her husband. She writes about him in Searching for Everardo: A Story of Love, War, and the CIA in Guatemala. "My husband was picked up by the Guatemalan military," Harbury explained in an interview on the Buzzflash Web site. "He was captured alive in 1992. Then they falsely stated that he had been killed in combat. I found out six months later that he was, in fact, still alive, that they had faked his death in order to torture him long term, with medical assistance to avoid accidentally killing him, so that he would break psychologically and reveal all of his information to them."

In her book, Harbury tells the story of her relationship with Everardo, whom she met during Guatemala's civil war. She also writes about her efforts to free him, which included going on hunger strikes to protest her husband's torture and goad the U.S. government in obtaining his release. She also details her discovery that it was a CIA informant trained at the infamous School of the Americas in the United States who ordered her husband's capture and eventual murder after more than two years of being kept in a body cast and undergoing torture. The author related in her Buzzflash Web site interview: "The documents from the U.S. government also showed that both the CIA and the United States Embassy had known where my husband was, and the fact that he was being tortured in the hands of U.S.-paid informants, from the first week of his capture. We could have saved him."

Margaret Randall, writing in the Women's Review of Books, noted that " Searching for Everardo, the book Harbury has wrought from her intimate knowledge of the Mayan people and her own unique participation in their war, is exquisitely organized and written, unafraid of the difficult questions, unflinching in its search—not only for the husband who was brutally tortured to death, but for the truth about Guatemala and our government's criminal role in its fate." Chris King observed in the Nation: "The book is written as a love letter to Everardo."

Harbury met her husband while in Guatemala conducting research concerning abuses and civil rights atrocities reported by Guatemalan refugees. Ultimately, her research led her to write her first book,Bridge of Courage: Life Stories of the Guatemalan Compañeros and Compañeras. Harbury details her direct involvement in the Guatemalan civil war as a member of the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca, or the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union (URNG). Much of the book focuses on explaining why people began to revolt against the government as the author reveals the beliefs and stories of the Guatemalans who joined the rebellion. "It becomes obvious by the consistency of its story-telling style that much of what has been collected has been molded and modified by a somewhat romantic literary process," according to Kelly Saxberg in Canadian Dimension. "She includes sections from her own diary which read the same. I am convinced that the stories she relates are true, especially since one account of the murder and torture of an important GAM (Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo, or Mutual Support Group) activist and her two-year-old son is corroborated."

In her 2005 book,Truth, Torture, and the American Way: The History and Consequences of U.S. Involvement in Torture, Harbury recounts the history of the CIA's use of torture long before the incident at the Iraq-based prison Abu Ghraib following the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. "In her latest book, … Harbury takes the reader on a journey as to how we arrived at Abu Ghraib," commented a contributor to Buzzflash. Harbury further noted on this Web site: "In the book, I document the use of torture by the U.S. government—especially the CIA and other intelligence forces—the development of these extraordinary torture techniques, like stress and duress, the water pit, the water boarding, et cetera, et cetera, and how those were brought together with death squad techniques, starting in Vietnam and the Phoenix Operation. A number of those torture techniques were developed in Vietnam, then brought to Central America and Latin America by our own intelligence forces."

In addition to recalling past abuses by the U.S. government in sponsoring torture, the author outlines her belief that torture, in essence, does not work. First of all, according to Harbury, it is counterproductive. Studies have shown that torture victims often give inaccurate information. Furthermore, the author writes that torture is putting American troops in Iraq at risk because America's use of torture gives a green light to the soldiers' captors that they can torture as well. Harbury also points out the fact that the United States signed the four Geneva Conventions forbidding the torture of either prisoners of war or civilians. In addition, she comments on the position that the United States holds in the world as an "ideal" to be followed and notes that torture tarnishes the country's image.

According to the Buzzflash Web site: "This book makes an excellent companion piece to Hidden in Plain Sight, the DVD documentary that provides an eye-opening introduction to the infamous ‘School of the Americas.’" Several reviewers also praised the author's efforts to tell the history of the United States' association with torture tactics. T.K. Sanders wrote on the Radar Contact Web site: "This book chillingly places the Bush Administration's torture policies in the proper historical perspective." Women's Review of Books critic Pamela Crossland referred to Truth, Torture, and the American Way as "gripping" and "insightful and painfully honest." Crossland added: "Harbury does a good job of integrating survivor testimony about CIA involvement in South and Central America, where it oversaw and paid for torture."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Harbury, Jennifer K.,Searching for Everardo: A Story of Love, War, and the CIA in Guatemala, Warner Books (New York, NY), 1997.

PERIODICALS

American Prospect, May 20, 2002, Wendy Kaminer, "Lies and Consequences," p. 9.

Arab Studies Quarterly, summer-fall, 2006, review of Truth, Torture, and the American Way: The History and Consequences of U.S. Involvement in Torture, p. 93.

Canadian Dimension, October-November, 1994, Kelly Saxberg, review of Bridge of Courage: Life Stories of the Guatemalan Compañeros and Compañeras, p. 42.

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, June, 1994, E. Pang, review of Bridge of Courage, p. 1643.

EFE World News Service, March 18, 2002, "Guerrilla's Widow Says Former U.S. Officials Lied," p. 1008077.

Legal Times, November 3, 1997, review of Searching for Everardo, p. 70.

Library Journal, March 1, 1997, Louise F. Leonard, review of Searching for Everardo, p. 89; November 1, 1998, Kellie Flynn, "Dirty Secrets: Jennifer, Everardo and the CIA in Guatemala," p. 135.

Los Angeles Times, September 18, 1993, "Wife's Search Embarrassing for Guatemala," p. 3.

Miami Daily Business Review, March 14, 2002, Tony Mauro, "In Rarity, Plaintiff to Argue Her Own Case before Supreme Court," p. 9; March 20, 2002, Tony Mauro, "Juggling Act: Jennifer Harbury Gets Good Marks for Balancing Legal Issues at Oral Arguments and the Personal Story of Her Husband's Death," p. 8.

NACLA Report on the Americas, January-February, 1995, Deidre McFadyen, "One Woman against State-Sponsored Terror," p. 5; January 1, 2006, Christy Thornton, "Torture: Does It Make Us Safer? Is It Ever OK? A Human Rights Perspective," review of Truth, Torture and the American Way, p. 45.

Nation, November 28, 1994, Pat Davis, "One Woman's Vigil for Human Rights: Hunger Strike in Guatemala," p. 652; November 10, 1997, Chris King, review of Searching for Everardo, p. 27; April 22, 2002, Eric Alterman, "Lying in State," p. 10.

National Catholic Reporter, May 9, 1997, Gary MacEoin, review of Searching for Everardo, p. 16.

New Jersey Law Journal, March 25, 2002, Tony Mauro, "Lawyer-cum-Litigant Gives Justices Rare First-Person Slant to Argument," p. 17.

New Republic, September 11, 1995, Charles Lane, review of Bridge of Courage, p. 39.

New York Times, October 19, 1994, "American in Guatemala Fasts to Free Husband," p. 14; March 23, 1995, Tim Weiner, "Guatemalan Agent of C.I.A. Tied to Killing of American"; March 24, 1995, Tim Weiner, "Long Road to Truth about Killings in Guatemala"; March 24, 1995, "Shameful C.I.A. Secrets"; March 26, 1995, Catherine S. Manegold, "The World; A Woman's Obsession Pays Off—at a Cost"; March 27, 1995, Catherine S. Manegold, "The Rebel and the Lawyer: Unlikely Love in Guatemala"; January 6, 1996, "World News Briefs; Lawyer Attacked in U.S. Blames Guatemala Army"; March 24, 1996, Tim Weiner, "Guatemalans Covered Up Killing of an American, U.S. Aides Say"; May 12, 1996, Tim Weiner, "What the Widows Weren't Told; For the U.S, a Bad Bedfellow in Guatemala"; March 19, 2002, Linda Greenhouse, "Widow Argues for Right to Sue Officials," p. 19.

NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs, July 4, 2002, "Guatemala: Human Rights Lawyer Jennifer Harbury Loses Supreme Court Case as Former Officials Claim Right to Lie."

People, November 14, 1994, Pam Lambert, "The Hunger Weapon: Demanding the Release of Her Missing Husband, an American Woman Starves Herself in Guatemala," p. 135; April 10, 1995, Bill Hewitt, "Last Rights: A Crusading Widow Wins an Admission Her Husband Was Slain," p. 51; March 15, 1999, "Jennifer Harbury: A Widow Risked Starvation to Discover Her Husband's Fate," p. 110.

Progressive, October, 1993, Linda Rocawich, review of Bridge of Courage, p. 41; December, 1995, "Jennifer Harbury," p. 36; June, 1996, Martha Honey and Ricardo Miranda, "Guatemalan Hit Squads Come to the U.S.A," p. 22.

Publishers Weekly, January 13, 1997, review of Searching for Everardo, p. 63.

Texas Monthly, May, 1995, Jan Reid, "Spooking the CIA," p. 58.

Time, April 3, 1995, Elizabeth Gleick, "The End of the Vigil: Jennifer Harbury Fought to Know Her Husband's Fate, and the Answer Has Set Off a Washington Furor," p. 48.

Times Literary Supplement, November 21, 1997, review of Searching for Everardo, p. 31.

United Press International, March 18, 2002, "Harbury Argues Own Case before High Court," p. 1008077; June 20, 2002, "Court Rules against Harbury," p. 1008171.

Washington Post, November 19, 1994, "Two Dramas in Guatemala," p. 16; December 11, 2001, "Court Will Review Right to Secret Data; Decision Could Affect Anti-Terror Operations," p. 11; March 19, 2002, "Court Hears a Lawyer's Personal Claim; Guerrilla Leader's Widow Argues U.S. Officials' Deceit Prevented Chance to Save Husband's Life," p. 2; June 21, 2002, "Harbury Loses Bid to Sue U.S. Officials: Rebel's Widow Alleged Deception," p. 09.

Whole Life Times, February, 2006, Christine Mangan, review of Truth, Torture, and the American Way, p. 51.

Women's Review of Books, October, 1997, Margaret Randall, review of Searching for Everardo, p. 12; November-December, 2006, Pamela Crossland, "The History of Torture," includes review of Truth, Torture, and the American Way, p. 33.

ONLINE

Americans Who Tell the Truth,http://www.americanswhotellthetruth.org/ (October 24, 2007), biography of Jennifer K. Harbury.

Buzzflash,http://www.buzzflash.com/ (August 23, 2005), review of Truth, Torture, and the American Way;(August 25, 2005), "Jennifer K. Harbury Knows American Torture Starts at the Top, and It Has for Decades," interview with Jennifer K. Harbury.

Counterpunch,http://www.counterpunch.org/ (July 22, 2002), Jennifer Harbury, "Why Are the CIA & FBI Targeting Me?"

Radar Contact,http://radarcontact.blogspot.com/ (October 13, 2005), T.K. Sanders, review of Truth, Torture, and the American Way.