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With the aid of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR),
the witness went with her family to live in Mesa Grande, Honduras, for two
years. While she was in Mesa Grande, Narcisa Orellana told her that it was
being broadcast on the radio that the children had appeared in La Sierpe de
Chalatenango and that the Red Cross might have them. The witness did not
mention this information to anyone, because she did not have documentation
to be able to travel to Chalatenango. The witness heard two people, who have
since died, say that they had seen the girls: Paula Serrano, who was in the
helicopter in which they were taken and knew them, and “Narcisa”, wife of
her cousin, Eustaquio Franco, who saw them descend from the helicopter in
La Sierpe.
The witness went to the Attorney General’s office twice to report what had
happened to Ernestina and Erlinda, accompanied by a member of the
Asociación Pro-Búsqueda. The first time they were received very
discourteously by a lawyer, who threatened to call the police. The second
time, they were received by another lawyer, who did not believe her either.
Twice, she visited a judge, who, in principle, did not believe her and then
“received her satisfactorily.”
She would like her children to be returned to her, to be able to see them.
c)
Proposed by the State
4.
Roque Miranda Ayala, cousin of the alleged victims’ father
The witness is a second cousin of Dionisio Serrano, father of Erlinda and
Ernestina Serrano Cruz. He knew Dionisio and his wife, María Victoria Cruz
Franco, very well because they lived nearby in San Antonio de La Cruz, in
Santa Anita canton, Los Castros settlement. The witness saw them for the last
time in 1980 before he went to Honduras and, at that time, “he did not know
of any daughters with the names, Ernestina and Erlinda, both Serrano Cruz”.
5.
Blanca Rosa Galdámez de Franco, former neighbor of the
alleged victims’ mother
The witness resides in San José Las Flores, Chalatenango Department and is
61 years old. She knew the Serrano Cruz family very well, especially María
Victoria Cruz Franco, because they were born and lived in the same place. At
the time of the armed conflict, Mrs. Cruz Franco and the witness belonged to
the “masas” (masses) of the Farabundi Martí National Liberation Front
(FMLN), and were constantly moving from one place to another when the
members of the Salvadoran Air Force or Armed Forces arrived. She did not
see the Armed Forces take any of Mrs. Cruz Franco’s daughters, in any of the
places to which they traveled. The witness had no knowledge of the existence
of Ernestina and Erlinda, she only knew Mrs. Cruz Franco’s five other children.
Mrs. Cruz Franco did not mention the alleged disappearance of the children,
nor did she express sadness about their loss, as she did when they killed her
husband, Dionisio, and her two-year old grandson. Following the death of her
next of kin, Mrs. Cruz Franco and her family sought refuge in Mesa Grande,