Missing in Honduras: Julio Martin Baltodano

[Jeff Dunsavage]

I just happened to be looking at the "missing Americans" page of the U.S. Embassy in Honduras website (the sort of thing I do with my copious spare time) and learned about another missing man: Julio Martin Baltodano. Missing date: November 13, 2008. This is the second missing American to be "backfilled" on the well-buried page since I started looking at it in May 2009. Some of you may remember the story -- a week after my brother Joe's disappearance, my sister-in-law asked me why Joe's picture wasn't on the Embassy's missing Americans page. I asked the same question of our liaison in the Office of American Citizens Services, the office that maintains the site: she didn't know the page existed.

My conclusion: missing Americans are little more than a bookkeeping issue for the U.S. Embassies.