1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910778391603321

Autore

Saxon Dan <1958->

Titolo

To save her life [[electronic resource] ] : disappearance, deliverance, and the United States in Guatemala / / Dan Saxon

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berkeley, : University of California Press, c2007

ISBN

1-282-77224-4

9786612772245

0-520-94111-X

1-4356-0386-9

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (340 p.)

Disciplina

972.8105/3

Soggetti

Disappeared persons - Guatemala

Political persecution - Guatemala

Human rights - Guatemala

United States Foreign relations Guatemala

Guatemala Foreign relations United States

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 287-293) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Map of Guatemala -- List of Abbreviations -- Preface -- 1. Thursday, July 23, 1992 -- 2. Thursday Morning and Afternoon -- 3. Friday, July 24, 1992 -- 4. Saturday and Sunday, July 25-26, 1992 -- 5. The Catholic Church in Guatemala, 1524-1992 -- 6. Monday and Tuesday, July 27-28, 1992 -- 7. Wednesday, July 29, 1992 -- 8. Thursday, July 30, 1992 -- PART TWO: THE VISA -- 9. Friday, July 31, 1992 -- 10. Saturday, August 1, 1992 -- 11. Sunday, August 2, 1992 -- 12. Monday, August 3, 1992 -- 13. Tuesday, August 4, 1992 -- 14. Wednesday, August 5, 1992 -- 15. Thursday, August 6, 1992 -- The Aftermath -- Epilogue -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Selected Bibliography and Further Reading -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Part human rights drama, part political thriller, part love story, this riveting narrative chronicles the disappearance of one woman as it tells the larger story of the past fifty years of violence and struggle for social justice and democracy, and U.S. intervention in Guatemala. Maritza Urrutia was abducted from a middle-class neighborhood while taking



her son to school in 1992. To Save Her Life tells the story of her ordeal which included being interrogated in secret by army intelligence officers about her activities as part of a political opposition group. Chained to a bed, blindfolded, and deprived of sleep, Maritza was ultimately spared because her family was able to contact influential intermediaries, including author Dan Saxon, who was in Guatemala working for the Catholic Church's Human Rights Office. Here Saxon brings to life the web of players who achieved her release: the Church, the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Congress, numerous NGOs, guerrilla groups, politicians, students, and the media. Reaching back to 1954, when Maritza's grandparents were activists, the book is a study of the complex and often cruel politics of human rights, and its themes reverberate from Guatemala to Guantánamo to Iraq.