DIRTY SECRETS: JENNIFER, EVERARDO & THE CIA IN GUATEMALA
“DIRTY SECRETS exposes the world of cover-ups and lies that hide human rights violations. It is a deeply moving tragedy: two lives are drawn together by that which ultimately separates them: state terror.”
Carlos M. Salinas, Amnesty International, USA
“A powerful presentation which imaginatively draws us into a macabre world which, however invisible to us, belongs to both US and Guatemalan history. US citizens need to see this important documentary.”
Deborah Levenson, Associate Professor of Latin American History, Boston College
Fragment of declassified Department of Defense document acknowledging that Everardo (Efraín Bámaca) had not been killed, contrary to what Jennifer was told by US government representatives.
Synopsis
Jennifer Harbury's courageous search for her missing husband Everardo -- a Mayan rebel leader -- reveals the dark legacy of decades of CIA complicity in Guatemalan human rights abuses. DIRTY SECRETS tells a remarkable story of speaking truth to power as it follows Harbury through a frightening journey to save Everardo and stop the killing in Guatemala.
Director's Statement
I’d crossed paths with Jennifer Harbury a number of times before, so in 1994 when I heard that she was on a hunger strike in front of the National Palace in Guatemala City -- in order to pressure the government to release information about her missing husband, a rebel leader named Everardo -- I wanted to be there.
Jennifer Harbury on hunger strike, Guatemala City, 1984.
Photo courtesy of Derrill Bazzy.
As a friend, I wanted to support her efforts; as a documentary filmmaker, I wanted to follow her courageous struggle to find her missing husband. A decade earlier, both of us had been close to the GAM, the Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo, the first organization of relatives of disappeared people in Guatemala, and now here she was going through the same kind of experience.
I began following her as she camped out in Guatemala City’s Central Plaza day after day, garnering press coverage and support from solidarity groups but precious little information about the whereabouts of Everardo, who had “disappeared” during a firefight between the guerrillas and the army two years earlier. Another rebel who’d been captured and escaped from the army had first hand information that Everardo had also been captured alive and was being secretly held -- and brutally tortured -- by the military.
A breakthrough of sorts came when CBS’s “60 Minutes” profile of Jennifer reported that the CIA had in fact notified the State Department that Everardo had been captured alive. The State Department later confirmed the report. The following year, during Harbury’s third hunger strike, then-Rep. Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.) released classified documents confirming that Everardo had been killed while in custody in 1993—more than a year after his capture—on the orders of a Guatemalan military officer who was also a paid CIA informant.
Jennifer stopped her hunger strikes but continued her search for the truth about what happened to Everardo as well as to find his remains. So I accompanied her further as she pressed on with exhumations, reams of declassified documents, endless meetings with government officials, visits to military barracks and anything else that could possibly shed light on Everardo’s fate and those responsible. I hope the resulting video will inspire others to not stop when the going gets tough in speaking truth to power.
Awards
Gold Apple, National Educational Media Network
Award of Merit, Latin American Studies Association
Vermont International Film Festival
Denver International Film Festival
Taos Talking Picture Festival
San Antonio CineFestival
Chicago Latino Film Festival
Festival Icaro de Video, Guatemala
One World 1999 Film Festival, Czech Republic
San Juan Cinemafest, Puerto Rico