[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 17454]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         ATTACK ON PRO-BUSQUEDA

  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, on November 15, according to information 
I have received, three armed men attacked the offices of the Asociacion 
Pro-Busqueda de Ninas y Ninos Desaparecidos in El Salvador, dousing 
computers, archives, and confidential documents with gasoline and then 
lighting them on fire.
  For Senators who may not be aware, Pro-Busqueda is a small 
organization devoted to locating Salvadorans who, as children during 
the civil war, were forcibly taken from their parents, some of whom 
were killed by Salvadoran military officers, and either ``adopted'' by 
those officers or sold to other families including foreigners. Pro-
Busqueda works to support the Salvadoran birth parents who lost their 
children to these forced adoptions, and uses DNA technology to help 
family members find each other. Years ago, a member of my staff visited 
Pro-Busqueda's office in San Salvador, met the courageous staff and 
observed the research they were doing.
  This deplorable attack on Pro-Busqueda followed the abrupt decision 
by San Salvador's Archdiocese to close Tutela Legal, the highly 
respected human rights office of the Roman Catholic Church which played 
an indispensable role in investigating and documenting violations of 
human rights during the war, including the assassination of Archbishop 
Romero. The office collected key testimony and other documentary 
evidence, and there is more of that work to be done.
  The attack on Pro-Busqueda also followed the welcome but 
controversial decision by the Salvadoran Supreme Court to accept a case 
challenging the Amnesty Law, which has provided immunity from 
prosecution to former Salvadoran military officers implicated in 
atrocities during the war.
  I join those who have expressed condolences to the staff of Pro-
Busqueda, and urge the Salvadoran Government to conduct a thorough 
investigation and to punish those responsible. It is tragic that two 
decades after the signing of the peace accords that ended the war, 
attempts to determine the fate of kidnapped children elicits this kind 
of hateful, violent response. It illustrates how much remains to be 
done to fulfill the promise of the accords and overcome the painful and 
divisive legacy of that war.

                          ____________________