07/09/18 07/09/18 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> there have been times where i drive by and i just art crying because it is right behind my house. i think that is the worst part, not knowing what is actually going on in there. and just hoping they are ok. amy: a major u.s. mimilitary contractor has been caught detaining dozens of migrant

children inside a vacant phoenix office building with dark windows, no kitchen and only a few toilets. we'll speak with aura bogado with reveal, who broke the story. then we go to the u.s. border in texas where we will speak with human rights lawyer jennifer harbury on how today's lobectomy is foreign policy in central america. >> helped to create the cartels. most of the heads of the cartels are former military intelligence leaders who are trained in the united states, armed by the united states, worked carefully with the united states during the genocide era. we will also speak with jennifer harbury about her husband efrain bamaca velasquez who was tortured and murdered by the guatemalan army in the 1980's. after massive campaign, she she exposed the u.s. involvement in the cover-up of her husband's

death. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. president trump is slated to announce his nominee to replace retiring supreme court justice anthony kennedy tonight. the nomination is poised to cement the supreme court's conservative majority, vastly reshaping the court for decades to come. president trump is reportedly considering four potential nominees. judge amy coney barrett is the favor nominee among the religious right. "the new york times" reports she says she would like to see the scope of abortion rights changed. she's a member of people appraise, which requires members to swear an oath of loyalty and give each other and put on personal life decisions. judge brett kavanaugh an appellate judge from maryland who has ruled against obama care and abortion rights in the past. last fall he joined a panel of judges in issuing an order to prevent an undocumented immigrant teenager in u.s. detention from obtaining an abortion. that decision was later

overturned. raymond kethledge is a judge on the was court of appeals for the sixth circuit who is been dubbed gorsuch 2.0. he is ruled against voting rights, and cbs reports he is a staunch supporter of the second amendment. judge thomas hardiman is a u.s. appeals court judge that "the washington post" reports is a second amendment extremist. the report his replacement on the court could lead to a vast expansion in legal gun ownership and that he has been sympathetic to antiabortion activists past rulings. this is president trump speaking to reporters sunday. pres. trump: i'm getting very close to making a final decision. i believe this person will do a great job. i'm very close to making a decision. i have not made it official yet, obviously. but we are very close to making a decision. >> [indiscernible] pres. trump: they are excellent. you can't go wrong. amy: north korea has accused the trump administration of pushing

unilateral and gangster-like demand for denarization following secretary of state mike pompeo's two days of talks in north korea's capital pyongyang. pompeo did not meet with north korean leader kim jong-un during his visit, although he did meet with senior north korean officials. following the meeting, north korean foreign ministry said -- "the attitude and demands from the u.s. side during the high-level talks were nothing short of deeply regrettable." pompeo said the talks were productive. the high-level talks come after president trump met face-to-face with north korean leader kim jong-un inin a historic summit n singapore less than one month ago. president trump is headed to europe tuesday to meet with european leaders at the nato summit in brussels. in advance of the summit, trump reportedly sent sharply worded letters to many nato allieses, complaining their spending too little on military. this week's summit comes after trump lashed out at european allies during the g-7 summit in quebec last month. after his trip to brussels,

trump is expected to visit london, where widespread protests are planned against his visisit. he's then set to travel to one of his privatete golf cocoursesn scotland, the the trump turnberry in ayrshire, and then fly to helsinki for his summit with russian president vladimir putin on july 16. in san diego, a federal judge will hold a hearing today on whether to delay tuesday's deadline that mandated the reunification of all children under the age of five who were separated from their parents at the border. under court order, justice department released the names of more than 100 children less than five years old. the trump admdministration is claiming it t needs more time to match chilildren with their parents,s, including at least 19 parents the trump administration deported already. thee aclu says less than half of separated d children u under the of five would d be reueunited by tuesday. health and human services secretary alex azar has admitted nearly children were separated 3000 from their parents by the trump administration. he had previously claimed that

only 2047 children were separated. we'll have more on the trump administration's zero tolerance policy immigration crackdown after headlines. "the new york times" reports the trump administration stunned public health officials and foreign diplomats at the world health assembly in geneva by seeking unsuccessfully to derail a resolution to encourage breast-feeding and to instead promote the interests of the billion-dollar infant formula industry. the u.s. officials reportedly first tried to water down the resolution. when that failed, the officialss reportedly told ecuador that if it introduced the measure, washington would withdraw aid to ecuador and unleash punishing trade measures. ultimately, after a slew of other nations refused to introduce the measure in fear of retaliation, russia stepped in, and u.s. officials backed off from the threats. in southwest japan, flooding and landslides from record rainfall have killed at least 95 people and forced two million more to flee their homes.

dozens more are still missing. scientists have e linked heavy rainfall and increased flooding to climate change. in turkey, president reccep tayyip erdogan will be sworn in today for another five-year term as president with sweeping new powers. ahead of his swearing-in, his government fired another 18,000 state workers as part of a far-reaching crackdown on civil society following the failed military coup two years ago. in total, erdogan's government has fired nearly 150,000 people and arrested tens of thousands of humanan rights activivists, lawyers, academics, joururnalis, political dissidents and kurds. in a historic development in east africa, eththiopia and eritrea have re-established diplomatic ties after a nearly two-decade-long border dispute that killed tens of thousands of people in the late 1990's. the leaders of the two countries met for a landmark meeting in eritrea's capital, asmara, over the weekend in which the two leaders agreed to re-open embassies in their respective capitals and resume flights between the two countries. eritrea also agreed to allow

landlocked ethiopia to use eritrean ports on the red sea. this w weekend's susummit was te first the leaders of the two countries had met face to face in nearly 20 years. this is ethiopian prime minister abiy ahmed. >> if there is peace between ethiopia and eritrean people, the point of africa region will be in region of peace and development. our people, who live scattered humiliation, will come back with dignity. our citizens will not be sold and exchanged like commodities. in haiti, thousands participated in a protest in the capital port-au-prince after haiti's commerce and economic ministries announced massive fuel price increases late friday night as part of austerity measures being imposed on haiti by the international monetary fund. the government quickly canceled the fuel price increases after the massive protests, in which at least two people were killed and luxury foreign hotels were attacked.

u.s. airliners have canceled flights to haiti amidst the protests. in brazil, a legal and political battle h has erupted after a jue ordered former president and current presidential frontrunner luiz inacio lula da silva, known -- to be released from prison as he appeals a corruption conviction he says is politically motivated. hours after the sunday morning ruling, a second judge overruled the order. lula remains in jail. his supporters gathered outside the prison sunday during the legal battle. this is gleisi hoffman, a lawmaker from lula's workers' party. >> it can't the so much maneuvering for lula to stay in prison.. why does lula need to be in prison when he has a right to be released? taking their time with administrative moves that are not legal. this is embarrassing for brazil in the face of the world. amy: to see our interviews with former president lula, go to democracynow.org.

in thailand, seven boys from a youth soccer team have been freed so far from the underwater cave where they have been trapped for over two weeks. rescuers are undertaking a major effort to free the final five boys and their coach, who remain trapped in the cave. in washington, d.c., federal prosecutors have dropped all charges against all remaining defendants who were arrested at president trump's inauguration day "disrupt j20" protests in january of 2017. prosecutors had initially threatened over 200 people, including journalists, with a slew of felony charges that carried sentences up to 60 years in prison. the dismissal of all remaining charges means prosecutors failed to win a single conviction in front of a jury related to the protests during trump's inauguration. to see our full coverage of the j20 protests and protest trials, go to democracynow.org. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman.n. in san diego, california federal

, a judge will hold a hearing today on whether to delay tuesday's deadline that mandated the reunification of all children under the age of five on the trump administration separated from their parents by at the border. undeder court order, justitice department releaeased the namesf underhan 100 children five who were separated from their parents. the trump administration is claiming it needs more time to match children with their parents, including at least 19 carats the trump administration has deported already. the american civil liberties union says less than half of separated children under the age of five would be reunited by tuesday. according to the ruling, all separated chihildren must be reunited with their parents by july 26. last week, hhs secretary alex azar told reporters there are nearly 3000 separated children in government custody, a figure almost 1000 0 children more than the 24/7 his department released over -- 20 47 his to released

over week ago. well, for more on the unfolding crisis of separated families, we turn to a new investigation that dozens of migrant children have been detained inside a vacant phoenix office building with dark windows, no kitchen, and only a few toilets. the building was leased in march contractor reveal reports has received nearly $250 million in contracts to transport immigrant children since 2014. filmedal resident children in sweat suits being led into the buildingg with one so young, that they had to be carried. after reveal published its story friday, policy makers spoke out against the facility, and donations of toys were left out front, in a gift bag with the words "stay strong," along with a large dollllhouse. for momore, we go to o oakland, california, where we're joined by the lead reporter on this

story, aura bogado, immigration reporterer for reveveal from the center for investigative reporting. welcome back to democracy now! talk about what you found. >> thanks, amy. a few weeks ago, the white house chief of staff john kelly said the children who were being taken from their parents at the border would be placed in foster care or whatever. focused has been laser on what that "whatever" means. although we don't know for a fact thahat these children were indeed separated from their parents at the border, we believe that may be the case because, as you mentioned, some of the children are so young that they do not look like they're old enough to walk. i know for my many years as an immigration reporter that children who do cross the desert or who turn themselves in at a port of entry tend to be teenagers, sometimes preteens.

we have never seen toddlers who are unaccompanied. for that reason, we believe these children may have been separated fromom their pararent. we have a better idea ofof what that "whatever" may mean. in this case, a contractor, a private contractor with heavy ties to the cia -- in fact, it was founded by next cia secret agent -- had an n officece in wh neighbors described dozens s of children going i in over ththe n of several weeksks and never leaving until three weeks later. we were able to obtain video of 32 of those children entering the facility.y. this is in an unmarked, unmapped, unlicensed, largely vacant office building right there in phoenix. amy: you tweeted this story was made possible by a tipster lianna dunlap. she was brave enough to take

video and ask questions. our team worked nonstop for a week. we found the contractor. ice had to issue a comment." i want to turn to lianna dunlap in a recent reveal interview, as she describes her response to seeing white vans filled with immigrant children pulling up to the vacant office building behind her house june 4. the next day, she videotaped more children being led into the building. dunlap says she never r saw children leaveve or go outside during the next three weeks. >> a lot of times i would just stare out my window waiting to see something or late at night i would go out in my backyard and just look at that window, waiting to see if i could hear anything or see any lights. just like, if there are kids in there and they have those windows blocked off, they are not even in sunlight. and how long have they had them

in their -- there? where ive been times drive by and i just start crying because, you know, it is rigight behihind my house.. i think k that is the worst par, is not knowing what is actually going onon in thehere and just hoping they are ok. any code that is lowly dunlap, your tipster, aura bogado. some have described this as a black site for migrant children. >> oh is just texting with her a few minutes before the segment. she was concerned the first time she saw this happen, that -- i saw a text she explained with her husband on the fourth of june and she said something very where it is going on, i think the children are being trafficked. she subsequently takes video. she confronted workers.

she talked to her friendnds abot it. she called the police because one of the workers casually said, look, if you ever problem with a, , call the police. and so she did so. we spoke at the phoenix police department who confirmed they responded to a call. however, when they found this was an ice contractor involvede, theyey apparently did not contie or maybe even start an investigation. turn to local media and then turn to us. i think from a a moment of frfrustration and wanting to really know what happened with these children what is going on here. our team of investigators got on the story right away. i wawas on the next flight to phoenix the following morning. i went straight from the airport to lianna's house. that office is right in front of her house and then back at the

office, we hadad our great teamf researchers and reporters really start digging in to thiss property, the history of the property. mvm, ththismarch, private contrtractor, signed a five-year lease. this is one month before attorney general jeff sessions announceces zero policy. in june when we start hearing reports of separated -- of children being separated at the border, that is when lianna and her neighbors first started seeing children. they told me they had no idea that these could have been immigrant children. they thought mayaybe these were justst children who are bebeing trafficked for some kind of work and who are being abused. they then see the reports of immigrant children. president trump then canceled his own policy of separating

families at the border on the 20th of june. two days later is when neighbors reported seeing g all of t the n loads of children leaving. some debra's estimated it was around 40 children who left on june 22. othersrs tell me it was as manys 80 kids who were in their. amy: she called the police because she is concerned that this -- whatever this entity was at the time, they were engaged in human trafficking. u.s. immigration and customs enforcemement confirmed to you,o reveal, that it entered into a contract with mvm. the company isd " "authorized to use their office spaces as waiting areas for minors awaiting same-day transportation between u.s. customs and border protection custody and u.s. health and human services custody." meanwhile, a statement posted on "mvm's website june 18 reads --

"the current services mvm provides consist of transporting undocumented families and unaccompanied children to department of health and human services designated facilities -- we have not and currently do not operate shelters or any other type of housing for minors." talk more about what you , the amount of money they have gotten and if there contracted with ice. >> mvm, only first contacted them, they stated w what you jut read, we''re n not in the busins of p providing shelter or any kd of housing for children at all whatsoever. as it became more clear to them that we had a lot of evidence that many children were being detained for some period of time in this office building, they said, well, this is a temporary holding place. that is the term mvm has used to

describe it, temporary holding place. ice did not respond immediately. i believe in a reporter who works on immigigration sort of takes that as a given. ice response when it was to respond and feels the need to respond. they eventually did respond. jennifer then telling me that under its contract, this private contractor mvm is allowed to have children in n an officee settingg used as a waiting area. but we think about a waiting area, it tends to be, in my experience, it has always been an area a in which i wait immediately before i speak with perhapsa dmv worker or for a board my flight. a waiting area does not tend to station, a detention centnter. as you s said, some haveve descd

this as s a black site.. i think that speaks to the unmarked, unlicensed nature of this office e building. this is a clean office building. amy: you looked inside the office building where they are being detained and published a photograph of what you saw, a child's booster seat labeled baby shampoo, a medication schedule? >> we did not publish the medication schedule because there is what we believeve to be private informioion about atat who isne of t the children being held there, likely a lot more. we see some names on there. there is a medicatition schedul. it has a partial identifier that ice and other immigration authorities use to track undocumented immigrants through its system. it has a name and it says hours."ion at 0900

that kind a medication schedule, that is interesting because i if any of us whwho have ever taken medication on doctors orders know, we need to take it oncece daily, twice daily. that is something that indicates perhaps children were there longer than just a few hours. and even if they were only there for a few hours, the state of arizona, they're the ones who determine whether or not the place is a childcare facility. the way we describe what we understood to be happening there too arizona departrtment of heah spokesperson, he said,d, he is familiar with this particular case. what we described would mean it is a childcare center and it is not license for that. there has not even been an application put him for that. amy: you got a copy of the spanish-language video that parents are required to watch in order to reunify with their child. in the very first minute, says to get a sponsor manual at a website. this is what happens.

amy: but the website they instruct parents to visit come you found the url is broken? >> that link has been broken for quite a long time. i don't remember when i it first went dowown, but it has been several montnths, if not l longr than a yeaear. this video is available in english and spanish. we do know a lot of people who were separatated from theieir children do nonot speak either language. they are indigenous peoples. video..eo is an outdated it was made for sponsors in general,l, i believe some yeyeas or more'm guessing two years ago. amy: and it doesn't work. we just have 30 seconds. how our politicians responding? this issue of a black site of children in phoenix, arizona? >> there's been a lot of outrage

on the part of lawmakers come on the part of policymakers come on the part of the communitity. there will be a press conference today directly in front of thatt office and a lot of lawmakers have issued statements. we are wororking with a reporter in phoenix who is going to bring us more about the fallout from our story. amy: aura bogado, thank you for being with us immigration , reporter for reveal, from the center for investigative reporting. we will link to your piece "defense contractor detained migrant kids in vacant phoenix office building." when we come back, human rights activist and attorney jennifer harbury. ♪ [mumusic break]

amy: us to continue to look at president trump's zero tolerance policy, we turn to texas-based human rights lawyer, jennifer harbury. her husband, efrain bamaca velasquez, was a mayan comandante who was disappeared after he was captured by the guatemalan army in the 1980's. after a long campaign she found there was u.s. involvement in the cover-up of her husband's murder. now shshe continues to work with people fleeing violence in guatemala, el salvador and honduras, who have come to the united states seeking asylum. innpoke just a week ago brbrownsville,e, texas, when i t with her right there along the border. i asked her what happens when people follow the u.s.

government's instructions in an attempt to apply foror political asylum at a legal port of entry. >> we are part of various treaties on refugees and we executed those into our own to mystic laws. it is in there and it says the 5 goes under eightusc 122 up to the port of entry, knocks on the door, and literally says, i'm in danger. i need to apply for asylum. they go to a credible fear interview and then to a detention center come initially, and they will be put in proceedings before an immigration judge. the norm that has always been in place for either group of people, whether they went by the river or went across the bridge, is that if they have got perfectly good identification, they have never committed a crime, they're not a threat to anyone they're just on the run from the cartels, and they have legal status relatives who will take them in and sponsor them and pay all of their expenses --

amamy: what isis lpr? >> legal permanent resident. if they have all of that, they have always been released. since trump came -- it started declining before trump, but it just a gay bellyflop. it is part of the campaign of punishment, not of cartel people, but of the victims of the cartels. so if you go in and ask for asylum, has are credible fear .est, your detained and the conditions are horrific. we had one woman who had had surgery to repair her helpless, the one it was kidnapped, and they gave her such terribly -- amy: what do you mean? >> as i stated in our other segments, she had gone north with her eight-year-old daughter fling the cartels. border, their the van was pursued. it flipped over and crashed post up her daughter was crushed to death, eight years old. she suffered, the mother, a terrible fracture of her helpless, her femur, her arm, and a big ash around her throat

where she went through the windshield that could have taken her head off. she was several months in the hospital, harvard across the bridge on a walker told lester we don't do that anymore, go away. she went back and was kidnapped at the foot of the bridge. anyone looooking like a refugegs going to be kidnapped because the cartels have figured out, yet someone up north that loves you and is going to go find the money. that is what happened. we were then able to bring her across. she apply for what is called bonds, andilar to was eligible. should eligigibility for two categories, severe medical condition plus many legal relatives you're to take her and no criminal background. deny. she was in there for close to a year. the surgical site began to reopen given a terrible conditions -- amy: in her abdomen. >> in her hip. begin open again and that requires immediate iv into biotics that they gave her such inadequate feels freida biotics

lowinadequate p pills foror antibiotics that s she became resistant to all of them. then the infection went into her thigh bone, and she basically was going septic. after a year, they kinind of thw her at me, as she was in a wheelchairir in horribible pain. i was able to get her to her relatives. she's undergone three surgeries, and they d didn't haveve to ampe her leg. that's how we're treating the victims of the cartels. amy: to understand something, jeff sessions, the attorney general, said domestic violence and gang violence will no longer be accepted as grounds for political asylum. so she would not be accepted under -- >> that's correct. whosewoman whose case -- children i represent in another case -- this was back from 2009, but it's a very typical case, acactually, and it shows you what's going to happen now. she had an extremely abusive partner from reynosa. they grew up almost next door to each other. amy: and this s is just overer e border in mexico. >> just over the river. and he beat her so often and then tried to burn the trailer

they were living in, with her and the kids inside it, that she went to the police, got protective orders, and he got deported back to reynosa and immediately joined the cartels. and all her relatives said, "he's talking about how he's going to murder you. he's going to burn you. he's driving around with the cartels with these heavy weapons. don't ever come back." she was stopped by police after her waitressing shift, and they said, you know, faulty brake light or someththin-- a very typical excuse -- and was immediately turned over to border patrol, with all of her friend's screaming, does in her back, she won't survive the week. she was begging and crying. before the courts were even open and before she could contact any lawyer, just at dawn, she was forced back across the bridge into reynosa. and five days later, they found her incinerated. and her children have to livive with that. there was a child that was 10, that is suicidal, off and on. and that's our fault.

amy: in the case of the woman that you describe called laura, who was forced back, we had sarah stillman on, who did a piece for the new yorker about this. she told the border patrol agent, you're sending me straight to the slaughterhouse. and she said that her him,tation -- she said to "my death will be on your hands." she turned to agent garza and said "when i found dead, it will am be on your conscience." >> that's exexactly what she sa. and that was confirmed by two people who were deported with her. they were picked up with her in her car. they all went across the bridge together. and they all said the same thing. she was weeping and crying, desperate. amy: and where was she found? >> in reynosa, in an incinerated car, just down near the river. -- the second day, he found out she was there, he rammed her car, because she was

kind of fun a coyote to rush her across. and it is $1500 to pay the cartels for permission to cross. so her family was rounding up nickels and dimes, dollars, anything they could find. she went down to make arrangements, and he rammed her car, dragged her out of the car in front of her small child and and bit her eaear off, basicall. and her cousin, who is a very feisty woman, hit him with a log, and they escaped. and a few days after that, she was found unidentifiable. at first they didn't know if the cadaver was male or female. the family immediately recognized the mark of the car. she had been strangled partially and burned. the cause of death was strangulation and burns. and she was tied to the steering wheel. amy: so explain what you're doing, how you're fighting back. >> well, on many different fronts, right? for one thing, i want to make sure people make it to the door of the port of entry to ask for asylum. first, they were all turned away

last year. then the american immigration council filed a class action, and then they stopped turning people away, you know, at least if they were with somebody else. they started doing that again just about a month ago, almost unilaterally across the united ststates bororder, just about ty crossing. in reynosa and roma, very close to here, something almost worse was happening. the refugee moms with their babies, and men who were teterrified, and dads with their kids, came to the bridges, and there were told "we are full. sit on the bridge and wait your turn." of course they're full, because people are illegally being denied parole and bond once they're taken into the system. so some of them are enough for two years, two-and-a-half years, year and a half. and so, of course, you know, the places are full. but border patrol made all of those families -- 30 to 50 people i counted -- sit on the bridge, some of them 10 days, in roma 16 days. it was 100 degrees out back

then, and the heat index was 108. border patrol agents would not let them sit in the progreso waiting room, which holds a desk 100 people, is air-conditioned and has bathrooms. the people sitting on the bridge were not allowed to use the bathrooms. they had to go to a duty-free store, as long as it was open, until nightfall, and then i guess they used coffee cans. church people, civilians from both sides of the river, we started running to those bridges with water, with pedialyte, with pampers, with extra clothes, trying to help them. and then, suddenly, they were gone after senator merkley's experience down here, having the police called on him because he wanted to check on the welfare of the children that were separated. so then what happened is border patrol stood at the middle of the bridge, three men across, big husky men usually, to make sure they had "papers" before they would be allowed onto the u.s. half of the bridge. and if they had entered illegally into mexico, didn't

have transit visas, or their transit visas had been stolen, they would call mexican immigration and make them come up the bridge, grab the people and drag them back into mexico to either jail or deport them. so word went out about that really fast, and everybody ran to the coyotes to get across the river. well, kids drown all the time in the river. you know, not t long ago, a womn with two small children and an infant was on one of those rafts going across, and the 3-yeyear-d fell in and she couldn't save them with the baby in her arms. so she was begging the coyote to stop. he wouldn't. the child drowned. so we have driven them into the arms of these ruthless traffickers. a lot of the coyotes are now in reynosa at least, selling people to the cartels. that way they have no cost, pure profit, and they get another tip from the cartels themselves. so we force them into danger. and if they manage to get over here, now we punish them again by taking their kids away. if they go legally across the bridge, they face long-term detention in hideoeous prison-le conditions.

and the truth is, it is intended to force them to give up their claims for asylum, to which they are legally entitled to hearing in front of a judge, and just say "ok, i don't want asylum, after all. i am going home." one kid that we had was 18. his eldest brother was badly murdered, axe-murdered by the local cartels. the second brother fled to the united states and was deported back and killed shortly thereafter. the 18-year-old was turned away with his parents at the bridge several times, finally got got across, and after a yeyear n prison-like conditions, said, "i can't take it. i'm just going to go home. i'll just try to survive." and he went home. another man with a bullet hole in his stomach went home. and that is what this administration wants. we want to drive them home. we will take your kids. we will imprison you for years. we will make you sit on the bridge and die of heat stroke. whatever we've got to do, we're going to drive you homome. amy: and explain to someone like the former houston police

officer that we flew on a plane with yesterday coming here to brownsville, who was asking, "why should these illegal immigrants be allowed into our country." >> well, i've said before, reason number one, we're all human beings. we are supposed to take care of each other. jordan has something like 600,000 refugegees in a populatn of 9 9 million. now, that puts us to shame. quite apart from the moral and ethical issues andnd our own heritage as americans -- my father arrived at ellis island when he was 11. i mean, this is who we are. quite aside from our national identity, our government helped to create the cartels. most of the heads of the cartels are former military intelligence leaders who were trained in the united states, armed by the united states, worked carefully with the united states during the genocide era, as documented in the united nations truth commission report. and as i said earlier, president clinton ended up issuing an apology to the people of guatemala.

but we basically created this cadre of people and worked with them until the end of the genocide, which left 200,000 pepeople murdered,d, not killedn the crossfire, and 660 mayan villages wiped off the map. those people, who are -- non-amy: and you arere just talking about in guatemala alone.e. >> guatemala alone. those people, after the e war enended, were looking around f r something profitable. most of them were already in the drug trade. colonel alpirez, julio roberto alpirez, who was my husbandone of my husband's torturers, was being paid for the information he gave about everardo w while e was tortururing him. he got $44,000 from the cia at a remote jungle base not long after a specific torture session. after the disclosures happened, he was flown to the united states, despite the fact that he was not eligible for any kind of visa, and lived with his entire family for 10 years not far from the cia. amy: i want you to tell that story of everardo, of efrain

bamaca velasquez, your husband, for especially young people who maybe weren't even born at that time. but to understand the roots of the violence today, talk about what happened. your campaigning for him was, you know, one of the remarkable moments of protest, in your protest and also what you found out. >> well, as you said earlier, he was a mayayan indian campesino.. he had grown up starving. he was involved in what i call the mayan resistance movement, which was part of the urng resistance forces during the massacre campaign, etc., etc. he was captured alive. he was one of their highest-ranking officials, and he was captured alive march 12 am a 1992, by the military. m march 12, 1992, by the

military. and they realized who he was and how much v valuable intelligence he had. so instead of killing him outright, which is what they did with 99.9% of the prisoners of war, they kept him alive, with the help of physicians, while they tortured him long term, with the goal of breaking him for his information. and i am pretty sure, from the evididence i h have in the cia fifiles, thahat he survived 2.53 years of torture at the hands of -- to three years of torture at the hands of the military intelligence people. that team of his torturers, including the former president of guatemala, they were all intelligence paid officials for the military who were also working for the cia. and i set ouout to search for hm as soon as he disappeared, because we were not convinced he had been killed in combat. the army faked his death to better take advantage of his intelligence. they didn't want amnesty to be crying out for the u.n. interfering, or the inter-american commission. amy: and didn't you even go to a

military base, where they said, "this is the coffin that everardo was in"? >> i went to a military base, where they said he might be buried under the base, along to othereen 500 2000 people. i'm pretty sure that's not where he is. but they faked his death. they told us he was in an unmarked grave in retalhuleu. and at the same time, about a week after he disappeared, they sent a memo to both the white house and the state department saying "oh, the army just captured bamaca alive. he's a very, very important catch. they're going to fake his death, so they can better take advantage of his information and so that they can torture him." that was six days after he was picked up. i ended up on a long series of hunger strikes, three total, one of them for 32 days in front off the papalace down there. amy: we will be back with jennifer harbury. ♪ [music break]

amy: w we returned to our conversation with jennifer harbury when i was in brownsville, texas, where she represents people seeking political asylum. i've played a clip of the documentary "dirty secrets" about the film on the murder of her murdered husband efrain bamaca velasquez in the 1980's. >> i want to save my husband's life. i'm not going g to allow him toe tortureded for two-and-a-half years in a secret army prison and then shot to death or assassinated as if he was some kind of garbage. i'd rather die. i would literally rather die. and d i'm prepared to do so ifii have to.

i want p people to understand wt it means to have someone disappeared in their familily. and i want people to understand what that whole system of terror against a civilian population is about. when you're looking for someone you care abobout, you know, youu don't sleep anymore. you just stop sleeping. you wonder every single minute, you know, "am i fighting hardrd enoughgh? are they shootining him right n? you know, are they burning him right now? are they pulling his fingernails out right now? are they pulling you know, mayaybe i should be trying harder. mamaybe i shshould be fightingng harder." "dirtyat is a clip from secrets: jennifer, everardo & the cia in what amal a." this is when you were on hunger strike in guatemala city outside

the u.s. embassy there? >> the very first hunger strike was in front of the politecnica, close to the u.s. embassy, but it's their army intelligence building. anand it looks likike the wicked witch of the west castle, with cannons and machine gun turrets. that was seven days. the second one, that appears in this clip, was in front of the national palace, the government seat, and that was 32 days, water only. and then the very last one was in washington because they weren't assisting me. and that lasted 12 days, before the disclosures came out, with congressman torricelli, that my husband had indeed been killed by military intelligence officials, who were also working as paid informants of the cia. amy: and link that to what we're seeing today. so that was the violence of the 1980's, the u.s.-backed death squads in guatemala. you really helped to expose this through your own personal experience. how does that relate to people coming over the border in the united states? >> well, let's take the example of julio roberto alpirez, the colonel, right? he was witnessed torturing my

husband in person. he is also known by the cia to have helped murder michael devine, a u.s. citizen innkeeper in guatemala. there are also plenty of cia files that say he excelled in his task of liquidating not only the guerrillas but all of their sympathizers -- in other words, villagers -- in the highlands during the worst of the campaign, and that he was somewhat brutal and not well-liked by his fellow military. so start with that person as an example. he received $44,000 shortly after he come in person, tortured my husband. -- he, in person, tortured my husband. he injected him with an unknown substance, out of a cylinder of gas, that made his body swell enormously, so badly that one arm and leg were bandaged because they had hemorrhaged, and he was bending over the torture table. torricelli named him as one of those people. dea records show that he's also on the dea corrupt officer list.

he is known to be a drug runner, a cartel leader. what did they do when the disclosures were made by torricelli? the cia protected him. he is their asset. they sent him and his whole family to washington, where he lived happily for 10 years in secret, not far from the cia. when i found out, so that i would go file a torture victims protection act case on him, the cia notified him and immediately sent him back to guatemala so ththat he could avoid any consequences. and the dea is not allowed to take him down, because he's a cia asset and partner for many, many years, and that's forbididden. so there are many high-level cartel people who engaged in genocide and daily acts of torture who now are the heads of cartels. the terrifying zeta gang, for example, was out of guatemala and formed by military leaders. it is also composed of many collaborators in the military still and by different police people.

so these cartels are fantastically armed and trained to carry out village-by-village massacres, let alone bending people to their will. they are terrifying. i mean, some women from the rio negro massacre b back in 1980 we not long ago found in the city dump with their teeth pulled out and their breasts and hands amputated. and those kinds of mutilations, we remember. those are those military people. these are not street gangs. these are not kids. these are not people we hahave o idea who they are. the head of the salvatrurua gang was just discovered to be a military leader in guatemala who had been working in the anti-gang unit hand in glove with u.s. military people. they really didn't know? amy: so that takes us to ms-13, to another country -- that is also the door -- who -- el salvador -- who president trump

says he is protecting us from the gang, the ms-13 gangs in salvador. how does that relate to what you're talking about in guatemala? >> well, of course, the ms-13 had a lot of its roots in the united states, and then those people were deported back to salvador. there's a whole lot of history where actually thatthat happened in the united states, just as these military intelligence people that wentnt back down there. thosose people are firmly entrenched. and then the u.s. is not so much going after them as they are the victims of those people, the people running up here -- the woman with two small children on her back, barefoot. the 50-year-old who is seven months pregnant from a gang rape. the young man, 20 years old, with 17 bullets or his legs that could show me the scars. a 20-year-old who fled north after the second time the gangs told him they y would kill him d the people close to him if he didn't join, he's cannon fodder at that age. a said, no, again, took his wife and baby, and fled north, called his mom to say, "i'm coming back for the rest of you. i'm coming right now."

the day after he left, the gangs had bludgeoned his mother and younger brother to death and had gang-raped his 12-year-old sister, who was in a mental hospital, unable to speak. that young man has been sent back to salvador. amy: i want to go back to the zetas and their connection to special forces, to training. they are a -- a 2009 diplomatic cable published by wikileaks shows at least one zeta, former infantry lieutenant named rogelio lopez, trained at fort bragg in north carolina. >> well, many people, such as julio roberto alpirez, who i i keep mentioning because he's such a template, right? many of them were trained at the school of the americas, in torture and kidnapping techniques, and they used them. and then, when the war was over, they kept using them in the same way. and if we would release the files on the human rights violations and massacres committed by all of those people, then the war crimes claims that are -- that people

are valiantly trying to bring in central america, something could be done. those people could be put in prison, and then maybe we would have a lessening of the terror that has been used to drive people north in order to more easily run the drug cartels. amy goodman: where are the zetas based? >> well, they were up here for quite a while, near reynosa. they came originally out of guatemala and southern mexico. they were up here and owned the riverfront here for quite a while. they were pushed out a few years ago by the golfo cartel. but in reynosa now, they captured the -- the army had captured the highest-level person, and they've captured or killed several lower-level ones. so that's fractured, and the zetas are coming back. and they're all fighting each other, and they're fighting the mexican army and the mexican marines. so there's nonstop shootouts. anyone that's deported to reynosa, they're lucky if they can get off the bridge without being immediately grabbed, because they know they'll have someone up north. people struggling north, you

know, with their babies and stuff? they are lucky if they don't get trafficked and grabbed. it's completely unsafe in reynosa. and the zetas are clearly trying to come back because a group of people recently paid off the correct cartel, what's left of the golfo, got to mid-river and were shot to death, with no explanation. and that's almost for sure the zetas coming back, saying, "oh, you paid the wrong guys." amy: we're talking to jennifer harbury, the well-known human rights activist and attorney. and she is also well-known now all over the country for having gotten the news organization propublica the tape of children, babies, infants, toddlers, children of tender age, crying out for their parents, saying, "mama," "papi." let's go to that clip.

[crying] papa! papa! amy: so, jennifer harbury, you're the person who got this audiotape out. describe how this happened. >> well, the true hero, of course, is the whistleblower. and he was present in the building nearby to these children, who had just been separated from their parents recently and who were just crying desperately and in fear, the way you just heard. that whistleblower brought the tape to me, and we discussed the legal issues and stuff. and the whistleblower authorized me to get it through to the press, which is what we did. amy: do you know -- can you tell us what detention center it's from? >> i'd best not. amy: and how old the children were? >> the children that you hear weeping would have been possibly as young as 3, up to 6 or 7.

and in the background, not weeping, are some older children that are still minors. amy: and one child who keeps on repeating the phone number of her aunt. >> remarkable. amy: has she been reunited with her family? >> i i don't think she has yet. i may be wrong on that, but i believe she's still trying to get reunited with her fafamily. amy: even though her mother has called up and said that "this is my daughter," and her aunt has confirmed that that is her numbmber? >> even with that. -- amy: so a judge in san diego has just ruled that these children must be reunited with their parents -- under 5 in 14 days, all children in 30 days. so what i is ing to hapappen? is this possible? >> it is possible if they really want to put the time and attention into it that they must. the problem, of course, is that so many people within ice and border patrol feel that these refugees are just kind of trash

and should not be coming to our country in the firirst place, tt things can't be that bad back home e even though youou can red that they have the highest murder rates in the world. so i'm not sure how hard they are going to try. there can be spelling mistakes in a name. of course, in most of central america, instead of saying june the 10th, 1984, they're going to say 10th june, 1984, so that can be transposed sometimes, making ititarder to f find the person. but if they want to find the parents, of course, they can. and if they want to release them immediately, of course they can. they always used to. amy: so as we sit here, a major protest about to take place right behind us at the federal courthouse, a courthouse you know well, right here in brownsville. what message do you have for people across the country? >> i think first we have to wake up and understand the basic flaw in the administration's argument

that they're protecting us from cartels and terrorists and so forth. the people we are punishing are moms, kids, fathers, young teenagers that don't want to be trafficked, young men that are saying "no i won't work with the , cartels." they're running for their lives. if the cartels wanted to send people to cross the river, as i said earlier, they can buy the airport. they have bought several police units in texas already. they can buy real -- amy: what do you mean? >> well, a whole elite piece of ourof the police force here, not long ago, was found out to have been working with the cartels. amy: here in brownsville. >> not in brownsville, up towards mcallen, in hidalgo county. and it's inevitable, with that kind of money. they have no need to send a desperate person who speaks no english, in raggedy clothing, to try to swim the river. they don't need that. they j just buy the passports. they buy the visas that are legitimate. and they can do whatever they want.

so we need to understand the difference. once we understand the difference, i think it becomes very clear what we have to do: protect the refugees. protect them. don't leave them on the bridge to go into heat stroke. don't leave them to miscarry a child after you've been gang-raped. i mean, what are we thinking that we would declare war and bring down total abuse on people that have just run for their lives? amy: in the countries they're mainly running from -- hunter is, el salvador, guatemala -- >> and much of mexico. amy goodman: and mexico. amy: >> much of mexico, and also parts of africa -- not the cartels there but genocide and , anti-gay stuff.

amy: in places like honduras, where the u.s.back to when hillary clinton was secretary of state, the u.s. supported a coup in honduras. how does that link, what's happening there, to the violence there? >> we keep supporting our military allies. it was president otto perez molina in guatemala, was one of the intelligence leaders responsible for my husband's three years of torture. and they knew that when he was running for office, and the state department still covered for him, sayining he was a reformist, for example. but what we're doing -- through our intelligence agencies, we're still giving massive support and protection to keep these military units i in placace andn total power over each of these countries, so that they'llll do what we want with their countries. and in return, we cast a blind eye. well, they set up these hideous drug-running cartels that are chasing these people up here and which eventually are going to land right here. and there already are signs of thatat in texas. and if we haven't done our part to put those people in prison by releasing our files and halting

military support for them, through elections and otherwise, then we're going to get what we deserve. attorneyn rights general for harbury. i spoke to her in brownsville, texas, last week. [capti

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