Searching for Everardo: A Story of Love, War, and the CIA in Guatemala

Though the civil war in Guatemala ended in December of 1996, the conflict still rages for human rights activist Jennifer K. Harbury. Searching for Everardo is an often chilling account of her search for her husband, a communist guerrilla leader, who was tortured and killed in 1992 by members of the Guatemalan army. While desperately clinging to the hope that he was still alive, Harbury spent three years battling the governments of both Guatemala and the U.S. to discover his fate, gaining insights into the covert dealings of the CIA in Guatemala.

Her contention is that members of the CIA knew what happened to her husband, but withheld the information in an attempt to cover up the actions of its agents. The Guatemalan government did a similar dance around the facts in order to hide the brutality of its own military forces. After unwavering pressure and protests, legal action, and three hunger strikes, Harbury finally forced the two governments to release the information they held on her husband and reveal the painful truth. This powerful memoir details her struggle in the most personal terms while offering a detailed--if one-sided--examination of the insidious political forces at work in the conflict.