17

 / The long road to justice

Pz

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handkerchiefs on their arms, in a crude attempt to disguise 
themselves as guerrilla combatants. The idea was that if the 
villagers agreed to feed them, they would obtain irrefutable 
proof of the fact that they were communists and that they 
therefore ought to be exterminated.

Pinzón, the cook, stood guard by the door while the other four 
entered the house. When one of María Juliana’s daughters 
in law began to scream, one of the soldiers stuck his rifle in 
her mouth to force her to remain silent. They threw the milk, 
cream and tortillas to the ground; they ransacked wardrobes 
and yelled at the family to hand over the hidden weapons 
immediately. “You’re the ones that feed the guerrillas that 
are up in the mountains!”, they insisted. Beating her with his 
rifle, a soldier forced María Juliana to step out into the yard 
and stuck her head in a bucket of water until she was about 
to drown.

Before leaving, the soldiers devoured the food that they 
hadn’t soiled, like a pack of hungry wolves, and asked María 
Juliana for water to wash their faces. “Thank you ma’am”, 
one of them said with a malignant smile. “We´re coming 
back to deal with you later”. 

Sandra Otilia, María Juliana’s youngest daughter, looked 
at the soldier with the mole on his left cheek and pleaded: 
“Please, if you happen to see my brother...His name’s 
Ramiro…”, and her voice trailed off into a faint whisper.

Despite the ordeal that they had just suffered, Sandra Otilia 
had not understood that the soldiers were there to kill them. 
Her father, Emeritón Gómez, had raised her to respect the 
olive green military uniform and to feel proud of the army 
that was there to defend all Guatemalans.