In mountains of Guatemala, searching for parents deported from U.S. without children

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http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-guatemala-separated-families-20180831-htmlstory.html


In mountains of Guatemala, searching for parents deported from U.S. without children

By Cindy Carcamo
Aug 31, 2018 | 12:10 PM


As Juan Carlos Villatoro approached a remote village in Guatemala’s western highlands, he yelled at his driver to stop so he could hail a skinny teenager in a motorized rickshaw.

Flashing a broad smile, he asked the boy to help him on his quest.

“Pardon me, youngster,” Villatoro began. “We are trying to find and help the deported parents who have children who are still detained in the United States. Do you know of a parent who is in this situation? We’d like to reunite them.”

The teen shook his head. “There’s nobody here like that,” he said.

It was a typical encounter for Villatoro, a Guatemalan lawyer turned impromptu detective in an urgent search for deported mothers and fathers with children still in the U.S. With a name serving as his only clue sometimes, he’s traveled twisting trails in cabs, minivans and teeth-rattling old buses to search mountain hamlets where Mayan tongues and suspicion often prevail.

“We don’t have telephone numbers. We don’t have exact addresses or email addresses,” Villatoro said. “There is nothing we can do but move forward and keep fighting and searching for these deported parents.”...................................................

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| HUEHUETENANGO, Guatemala
Sometimes equipped with only a name, and sometimes not even that, advocates are searching Guatemala for deported parents whose children are still in the U.S. (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)