In the 1980s, Harbury traveled to Guatemala, where she became more involved in helping the indigenous Mayans. In 1990, she met Efraín Bámaca Velásquez in Guatemala, and married him in 1991. An indigenous Mayan, Bámaca was a commandante of the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) during Guatemala's civil war, known by his "nom de guerre" of Commandante Everardo. This was a decades-long government and military repression and genocide, largely against Guatemala's indigenous populations.