To Save Her Life: Disappearance, Deliverance, and the United States in Guatemala (review)

Numerous studies have explored the historical relationship between the United States and Guatemala, focusing much attention on U.S. acquiescence (or active collaboration) in the repressive policies of authoritarian governments. Saxon's book contributes to this body of research. Although it lacks the theoretical sophistication of other recent studies, such as Victoria Sanford's Buried Secrets: Truth and Human Rights in Guatemala (2003), Saxon's work nevertheless deals with an important subject—the vexed politics of human rights protections in an authoritarian context.

The author examines state violence in Guatemala in the waning days of military control through the lens of a single incident: the kidnapping by state security forces of Maritza Urrutia in July 1992. That kidnapping is linked to generations of state perpetrated political violence through the story of several generations of Urrutia's. Saxon takes his readers back and forth between the present and the past, revealing how the absence of outlets for democratic participation led three generations to become involved in oppositional politics, including armed struggle. Maritza Urrutia's story has much to say about the frightful toll such political conditions exact on individuals and their families and leads one to ponder the toll imposed on society as a whole. As the author poignantly notes, when Maritza fled Guatemala in August 1992 with her young son, Sebastián, he was the fourth generation of Urrutia to live in political exile.

The central focus of the book is the Guatemalan army's abduction of Maritza Urrutia and the efforts of a notorious intelligence unit known as G2 to exploit her in the propaganda phase of its war with the guerrillas of the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union (URNG). Maritza's captors forced her to record a video tying her to a unit of the URNG known as the Guerrilla Army of the Poor (EGP). The purpose was to discredit the URNG while making the government look good by offering Maritza a generous amnesty. The case was complicated: Maritza was indeed affiliated with the EGP, which raised in some people's minds the question of whether she was a "clean victim;" her confession was coerced by an entity of the Guatemalan security forces that was notorious for murdering regime opponents, and attempts to protect her from highly credible threats of harm following her release involved a broad range of actors whose motives were not only different but often in conflict.

Maritza's kidnapping, release, and flight to safety in the United States took place over an intense two-week period. The political context was delicate because Guatemala was seeking, for the first time in forty years, to achieve a successful democratic transition of administrations. Simultaneously, negotiations were underway between the government and the URNG to bring an end to decades of war. Apart from its occasional excursions into history, the narrative focuses on Maritza's experience in military custody, her brief sanctuary at the Guatemala City Archdiocese, and the complicated political maneuverings to achieve her safe departure from the country. The author casts these maneuverings as providing a chastening political education for a naïve human rights lawyer. It is easy to see why.

Negotiations over Maritza's fate involved fiercely competing agendas. The victim's family, who from painful experience trusted virtually no one, sought her survival above all else. The newly elected president, Jorge Serrano was deeply sensitive about Guatemala's international image and wanted to prove, against the historical record, that she could be protected and her case resolved by Guatemalan institutions. The U.S. embassy was publicly pushing a human rights agenda, while being restrained by U.S. agencies seeking Guatemala's cooperation in the war on drugs. The URNG sought to mirror the army in exploiting Maritza for propaganda purposes and to gain negotiating leverage with the government. Finally the human rights communities in both countries played a critical role in...