On July 7 in Guatemala, Cristina Siekavizza, a wife and mother of two, went missing. As of today, Siekavizza is still missing and there are unconfirmed indications that her husband, Roberto Eduardo Barreda (a suspect in this case) and her children, have fled to the United States.
Social media is playing a role in trying to spread the word about Siekavizza. A group called VOCES POR CRISTINA has amassed over 4,000 followers and has actively been reaching out to outlets in the United States to see if anyone has seen Barreda recently and the couple’s two children.
This news has dominated the Guatemalan press since news of Siekavizza’s disappearance went public. Here is one recent column from Guatemala (in Spanish) that tries to capture the issues surrounding this tragedy.
It has been confirmed that Cristina Siekavizza was murdered by her husband, who is still at large, and who kidanpped his two minor children. INTERPOL HAS all the information, although Roberto Eduardo Barreda de León is included there as MISSING, because he has not faced trial. His mother, a former President of the Supreme Court in Guatemala and who received money from AID to promote a justice program oriented to women while on her post in 2005, is now in jail. She is accused of threatening the house helper at the victim’s home, and of obstructing justice with all her connections at the Judicial Branch. Some of her colleagues and ex-workers at the Judicial Branch want to set her free. Guatemala has to demonstrate whether justice will prevail or not. And the children have yet to return with ther maternal grandparents who have not stopped searching for them aided by a ever-growing group (Facebook Voces por Cristina) in and out of the country. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCN7HAjTlWg
Thank you for the update about this awful tragedy