Joseph Blatchford another reason to be discouraged." In 1977 Blatchford founded his private law practice, Summit Communications, in the field of international trade. Blatchford has represented "flower growers in Costa Rica, cement and toy balloon producers in Mexico, leather handbag exporters in Colombia, school ring binder makers in Singapore, and petrochemicals firms in Argentina." Blatchford is also the co-founder of Caribbean/Latin American Action, a business advocacy group. In 1978 Blatchford represented 13 defectors from Reverend Jim Jones' cult who were with Congressman Leo Ryan when he was killed at the airstrip near Jonestown in Guyana. In 1989 Blatchford was the principal lawyer
Leo Ryan Ryan had also asked his friend, Indiana Congressman and future Vice President Dan Quayle, to accompany himQuayle had served with Ryan on the Government Operations Committeebut Quayle was unable to go on the trip. While the party was initially planned to consist of only a few members of the Congressman's staff and press as part of the congressional delegation, once the media learned of the trip the entourage ballooned to include, among others, concerned relatives of Temple members. Congressman Ryan traveled to Jonestown with 17 Bay Area relatives of Peoples Temple members, several newspaper reporters and an NBC TV team.