Exhumation in Chel

Chapter One: La Violencia and Its Effects

9. Exhumation in the village Chel

The village of Jua was destroyed by a massacre in 1981. Many people died and the suffering was great. Many people were buried in different places and for many, their families didn’t know where their bodies had been thrown, whether in the rivers or in the ravines. There are many people who disappeared from this earth in this way. Many families were lost. Not many victims were buried by their family members, and in these cases, many of them were not buried in the cemetery. But the families know, more or less, where their dead are buried and it would only be a matter of taking them to the cemetery. But it is especially sad for those families who never directly confirmed the deaths of their loved ones.

The woman in the photo lived in the village of Jua with her two sons. When la violencia destroyed her village she went to the village of Xesayi that was destroyed as well in 1982. It wasn’t until 1997, when peace was beginning to some extent, that an exhumation of the people who had been massacred was carried out in Xesayi. The woman in the photo was the only survivor of the massacre that took place. She came to show the people carrying out the exhumation where her deceased mother, her siblings, and her two children whom she had lost were buried. But she was not alone. Many people besides her had loved ones who had been massacred. The woman went to see the remains of her family. She identified her mother’s bones by the coins that were on her earrings because she said that women recognize each other by these coins that are different on each woman’s earrings, and she recognized the coins on her mother’s earrings.

She is pleased that the exhumation is taking place, because at last people will be able to take their dead to the cemetery, the place the dead should be. When the village of Xesayi was destroyed, she went into hiding for ten years in the mountains. For her, the suffering is unforgettable. She will never be able to forget what she saw in that year 1982. Now she is quite sick of heart and very affected by all that she suffered.

The woman is thinking a lot about the hurt, the pain, the tremendous impunity with which the soldiers acted. She remembers how the people were tortured, the terrible tortures that they inflicted upon her family members before they died. She witnessed how some men were killed with machetes, how the soldiers drove wires into the ears of others, and how others were strangled with chains.

And I, the interviewer, in that moment, I was feeling the pain that this woman was feeling deep inside. She had seen so much in her lifetime! My wish for the future is that this family have the right to live in peace, not only them, but all the indigenous people who were so affected during the war. Now the time has arrived that these people can resettle in their villages. Like this woman who has suffered so, they are only now able to settle down again. They are so forsaken considering all the misery and sickness that has affected them. What gives hope is their great struggle to survive, the love they have for their children, the love of others, and the struggle for unity and peace.

I say that we, the indigenous people, deserve to live in peace and deserve to be respected by those who planned to destroy us 17 years ago. I assert that they decided to kill us, because the government made the decision to order its soldieres to kill many people who were not guilty of anything. The governemnt can't pretend that it was guerillas they were killing because babies can't take us arms, neither can pregnant women, nor little boys and girls, nor old people. So now they can't decieve the indigenous people anymore, becayse we are analyzing the errors committed during the war. If there has not been an improvement among our people, it's because of the great impunity with which everything was carried out, and on account of the neglect and destruction, and the terrible damage done to us. And I say that never again should such harm occur. Enough now of so much lying, of so many deceptions by corrupt and murderous presidents. If the president now promises to work and watch out for the needs of the people, may it come from his heart and be shown with deeds not just words. He should not be corrupt like the presidents who were assassins–not all of them were, but some–like those who were presidents during the time of the war.