28 with victims of torture and people who were trying to leave the country, among them, people involved with the guerrilla groups. For safety reasons, she returned to her home in Texas in 1986, and decided to write a book on the situation in Guatemala. To this end, she visited secret URNG clinics, where those who had been injured were treated and gathered testimonies for her book. She sympathized with the URNG, but she did not become a guerrilla. In order to conduct the interviews for her book, she spent 30 days with the Luis Ixmatá Front, which was led by Efraín Bámaca Velásquez, known as Comandante Everardo, where she also met Santiago Cabrera López. The former protected her there and arranged the interviews. When she left, they wrote to each other and, starting in 1991, they began a close relationship while peace talks regarding the indigenous people were being held in Mexico City. Afterwards, they both went to Texas, where they were legally united “by a type of marriage that is very similar to a common law marriage”. Bámaca Velásquez subsequently returned to Guatemala. In mid-March 1992, she went to Mexico D.F., where she met with members of ORPA, who told her that Bámaca Velásquez had disappeared after an armed encounter near Nuevo San Carlos. The day after the events, the Guatemalan press had informed that the Army had found a corpse dressed in an olive green uniform there. According to the information she was given, following his capture, Bámaca Velásquez was initially detained at the Santa Ana Berlín detachment, then transferred to Guatemala City and then to Quetzaltenango and, finally, in July 1992, he was in San Marcos. According to information from the US State Department, Bámaca Velásquez was still alive in May 1993, together with 350 other prisoners. She spoke by telephone with Ramiro de León Carpio, then Guatemalan Ombudsman, who later informed her in a letter that a corpse had been found on March 13, 1992, which was subsequently buried in Retalhuleu as XX; according to the letter, the description of the corpse coincided with that of Bámaca Velásquez. However, in view of the lack of information received from the G-2, they doubted that Bámaca Velásquez had died. Therefore, de León Carpio officially requested that the body buried in Retalhuleu should be exhumed. The exhumation was conducted in May 1992, in the presence of the international observers Francis Farenthall, James Harrington, Tony Quale, and the witness. Also present were the local judge, the coroner from the human rights office, Leonel Gómez, the forensic photographer, the administrator of the cemetery and two excavators. While they were opening the grave, 25 armed police arrived; they made those present kneel and said “we are also here as observers”. The procedure then continued and when they were about to raise the body, the Attorney General, Acisclo Valladares, arrived in a helicopter, shouting that they had to halt the exhumation; after which they could not continue with the procedure. Valladares stated that, among the reasons for preventing the procedure, it had not been approved by his office, it could not be conducted owing to the presence of foreigners and, in order to proceed, it was necessary for someone from the URNG to be present to identify the corpse. In view of the discussion, the Attorney General indicated that the exhumation was not cancelled, but merely postponed for security reasons and to facilitate the formalities. Subsequently, she learned that her husband was still alive at that time, and that he was being tortured; Attorney General Valladares also had this information. The