Louisa Reynolds /

Pz

P

18

VI

Convinced that sooner or later they would speak, the 
Kaibiles dragged the men out of the school, one by one, 
and beat them, demanding to know where they had hidden 
the rifles. But it was to no avail. Even though they tortured 
them by placing a rope around their necks until they almost 
strangled them, the men insisted that they were not hiding 
any weapons.  

César Franco Ibáñez had been told to stand guard by the 
church door to make sure that no one could escape and 
from there he saw Lieutenant Adán Rosales Batres, who 
was known for his habit of raping women after a village had 
been raided, walking towards him. 

Women of all ages were crying and begging for mercy but 
the soldiers, nonchalantly, dragged them out the church, 
pulling their hair, and into the shrubs, where they fell upon 
them like wild beasts, tearing clothing, destroying the tiny 
uteruses of infant girls, injecting every woman and child 
with a sperm that was filled with hatred.

At around ten o’clock in the morning, after the brutal rape, 
the women were forced to prepare a chicken stew and 
beans for the soldiers. At midday, as they ate their meal, 
César Franco Ibáñez heard some of the soldiers talk about 
“vaccinating” people, which he found extremely strange as 
they were not part of a civilian affairs patrol.

Once they had eaten, the mystery was dispelled and he 
understood what “vaccinating” meant in the lexicon 
of those beings who were no longer men but killing 
machines churned out from El Infierno (Hell) and La Pólvora 
(Gunpowder), the two training camps where the slogan “if