19

 / The long road to justice

Pz

P

I advance follow me, if I stop urge me on, if I turn back, kill 

me” had been drilled into their brains. 

During their grueling training sessions they had been forced 

to swim across a crocodile infested river, eat anything that 

moved, whether it be ants or the puppy they had raised as 

a pet, and they had watched those who were weak and did 

not past the tests, die. Those who never made it out of Hell.  

“Vaccinating” for the Kaibil soldiers meant that a group 

of instructors would be in charge of rounding up a small 

group of people, tearing a piece of every man, woman and 

child’s garments, blindfolding them and handing them over 

to another group of soldiers, who stood by the well. These 

soldiers would lift a heavy sledgehammer that they had found 

among the water buckets, scattered around the wel, l and 

smash their skulls. The bodies would then be thrown into the 

well and the groans that were still heard from the depths and 

darkness of the well would be silenced with a hail of bullets 

and the explosion of a hand grenade. 

Next to the well stood Lieutenant Rivera Martínez together 

with most of the Kaibil instructors, among them Reyes Collin 

Gualip, Manuel Pop Sun, Daniel Martínez Hernández, 

nicknamed “el Burro” (the Donkey) and one who had a mole 

on his left cheek.

VII

Hidden among the roots of a tree, 11-year-old Salomé 
Armando could not stop thinking about his brother Ramiro. 
He held his breath when he heard the soldiers’ footsteps. As 
they drew closer, he realized that one of them was riding 
Ramiro’s mule and was wearing his hat. “We’re done with 
all of these sons of bitches!” one of them yelled and at that 
moment he realized that he would never see his brother 
again.