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by Justo Victoriano Martínez-Morales, which had revealed that the El Llano
Civil Patrol had murdered his brother and Mr. Griffith Davis. Despite
Colonel Ortega's promise to conduct an investigation and hand over a list
of the names of the El Llano civil patrolmen, he had never done so. In May
1988, he had met James Elleson, Justo Victoriano Martínez-Morales,
Colonel Recinos and Major Baides in Guatemala. Major Baides told him
that he had been unable to locate the members of the Civil Patrol
identified by Justo Victoriano Martínez-Morales. In January 1989, he made
his twelfth visit to Guatemala with his family. They had met with
Ambassador James Michael, who told them that Colonel Hooker had
interviewed civil patrolmen Mario Cano and Vicente Cano, who had at first
denied being from El Llano, but that Mario Cano had later admitted that
they did. Mario Cano could be seen on a March 1986 video speaking as
Chief of the El Llano Civil Patrol. In May 1989, the United States Embassy
had sent Colonel Ortega photographs of the suspects and he had promised
to locate and arrest the perpetrators, but had never done so. In February
1990, he again went to Guatemala and met with United States Embassy
officials, who told him of the measures they had taken and that the Army
was not cooperating in the investigation into his brother's disappearance.
He believed that the Army was covering up the disappearance. In the
spring of 1990, he discovered that FBI agents, Ricardo Roberto of the
United States Embassy and Michael Shawcross, had interviewed El Llano
civil patrol
members Mario Cano, Hipólito Ramos-García, Vicente
Cifuentes and López Herrera. They had never arrested the perpetrators.
Daniel Velásquez, Chief of the Las Majadas Civil Patrol, was responsible for
burning and transferring the remains, but had never been arrested. In
January 1992, the Blake family visited Guatemala for the eighteenth time.
Felipe Alva offered to help them in exchange for money. Michael
Shawcross had received two boxes containing bone fragments from Felipe
Alva. In June 1992, he was in Guatemala when the bones were found,
together with tent pegs, and his brother's spectacles. It had taken more
than seven years from his brother's disappearance for his whereabouts to
be discovered. The remains were exactly where Justo Victoriano MartínezMorales had said they were, corroborating his statement that Nicholas
Blake had been murdered by the El Llano Civil Patrol. In November 1992,
he met in New York with Lieutenant-Colonel Otto Noack-Sierra, who had
been present when the remains were discovered. The Colonel told him
that Guatemalan Military Intelligence had known almost immediately what
had happened to his brother. In December 1993, he met with LieutenantColonel Noack and President Ramiro de Leon-Carpio at the United States
Embassy and requested that the State recognize its responsibility for the
acts, punish those responsible and pay compensation. The President had
replied that it was true that the Civil Patrol had killed his brother, that the
Army had known this all along and had covered it up, but that he would
have to think about punishment and compensation. Of the eight or ten
persons responsible, only Vicente Cifuentes had been detained. Felipe Alva
was currently Mayor of Chiantla, and although General Gramajo informed
him of a 1986 court action, nothing was known about that case or any
other. If his family had not made more than 20 visits in seven years, they
would never have known what had happened. Since the Chief of Military
Intelligence and the Minister of Defense, as well as other officers, could
not provide a list of the Civil Patrol, it was quite ridiculous to attempt any
litigation in Guatemala; they had therefore not retained a lawyer or
initiated any proceedings. They had spent between $80,000 and $100,000
in the search for his brother. He had suffered a severe nervous breakdown
after the disappeareance and had spent thousands of dollars on