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Nun Plans Fast To Protest U.S. Secrecy

Associated Press

A nun who says she was raped and tortured in Guatemala said Monday she will eat only bread and water until the government releases information it has on her case and other human-rights violations in the Central American nation.

For 22 days, Sister Dianna Ortiz, an Ursuline nun from Grants, N.M., has conducted a silent vigil in a park across the street from the White House in an effort to gain access to information the government has on her 6-year-old case.

While her cause appears to be gathering momentum - she has met with first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton - little movement is apparent toward release of government files.

Sister Ortiz, who speaks in a soft, almost inaudible voice, spoke haltingly about the day in 1989 she was abducted and tortured while in Guatemala to teach poor Indian children how to read.

She said she recalls hearing a man with an American accent who appeared to exercise control over the men who brutalized her.

The man, called “Alejandro,” may have been connected with the U.S. government, she believes, and she is seeking documents from a host of U.S. agencies under the Freedom of Information Act. Among them are the CIA, the State Department, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency.

“I have waited patiently for six years, and for six years I have been told to wait,” Sister Ortiz said. “I want to know what the truth is. I want to know who Alejandro is. Until I receive this information, I cannot heal.”

“Those FOIA requests have gone nowhere,” said her lawyer, Michele Arington. “Based on conversations I have had with the government, it is clear they are sitting on a pile of documents.”

The U.S. Embassy in Guatemala City says a thorough investigation found nobody it employed in 1989 who matched Sister Ortiz’s description of “Alejandro.”

But her actions have not gone unnoticed by the Clinton administration.

“Those who work here are very committed to openness where it’s possible and to making documents available,” State Department spokesman Glyn Davies said.