-19- He has degrees in Classical Humanities and Philosophy and a doctorate in Engineering; he is the Director of the Asociación Pro-Búsqueda. He arrived in El Salvador in 1955. In 1989, owing to the murder of his Jesuit colleagues, he decided to stay, helping the communities of Chalatenango. Based on Pro-Búsqueda’s experience, throughout the armed conflict in El Salvador, there was a systematic pattern of disappearance of young boys and girls during military operations. The case of Ernestina and Erlinda fits perfectly into the general pattern of the disappearance of children during the conflict. The Armed Forces and the humanitarian institutions that held the children did nothing to find their families. They were taken to orphanages and barracks or they were “sold in adoption.” It was sufficient for a judge to declare a child in a state of material and moral abandon for its adoption to be authorized. These adoptions were based on the lie that the children were orphans and abandoned. 126 children have been found abroad “in 11 countries of the Americas and Europe.” All of them have been naturalized as citizens of the country in which they live and almost all of them do not speak their mother tongue. Pro-Búsqueda informs the young person who is found of his real identity, his relationships and his real name so that he can decide what he wants to do. During the armed conflict it was almost impossible to report a disappearance, because the families of those who disappeared did not have documents, there were road blocks, and they had no money. The communities in which the witness worked decided to try to find the disappeared children. After the initial successes, people began to seek his group to tell them about other disappeared children. In August 1994, the Asociación Pro-Búsqueda was created. Up until September 2004, 246 search requests had been resolved, and 475 cases remained to be solved. He knows of more than 40 cases of children who disappeared during the armed conflict who are in the homes of Armed Forces officers; it was vox populi that children were given away in the military barracks. The witness referred to the creation of the Truth Commission. Because people were frightened of going to San Salvador to make a statement, the Commission went to Chalatenango to receive statements. In Guarjila canton, three women stated that, during the “guinda de mayo,” the Army had taken their children. One of them was María Victoria Cruz Franco, Ernestina and Erlinda’s mother. The Truth Commission’s March 1993 report did not mention the case of the disappeared children, probably because it did not have time to investigate the facts concerning the disappearance of children. The Truth Commission included the disappearances of children in the global situation of disappearances, and described 30 typical cases of large-scale massacres and some cases of disappearance. The witness explained some of Pro-Búsqueda’s techniques to trace disappeared children. Regarding the help provided by the State of El Salvador in this search, “unfortunately,” help had only been received from the Ombudsman’s Office and the Attorney General’s Office, and they have had “some access” to the files of the Supreme Court of Justice. They have had a “bad experience with the other State entities.” They have not had access to the information in military installations. The State has demonstrated a