Louisa Reynolds /

Pz

P

28

 

-“Do you have family members in Dos Erres? said 

the sub-lieutenant.

 

-“Yes, my two young daughters, my brothers and 

their entire families”, she replied.

Although Carías was only twenty three, young enough to be 
her son, he placed his hand on her back in a condescending 
gesture, as if he was talking to a small child. “Look my girl”, 
he said. “Don’t come and talk to me about guerrillas because 
if there were guerrillas here, I wouldn’t be standing here 
doing nothing, would I? This is a clean-up operation. Those 
who are clean will leave the village and those who are not, 
won’t leave. If your brothers are clean they’ll come home. 
Come back tomorrow. I’ll see what I can find out”.

María Esperanza mulled over the words she had just heard 
and replied that no one in her family had ever broken the 
law but that she was very worried about her daughters as 
they probably hadn’t eaten during the past few days. “Don’t 
worry. The soldiers are giving the children water and honey”, 
said Carías. María Esperanza had no other choice but to 
believe him.

Carías probably thought that he had managed to shake 
her off, but the following day, there she was. “What do you 
want? He’s busy,” said the soldier who stood guard at the 
door, impatiently. But María Esperanza was certain that 
something terrible had happened and she was determined 
not to leave without speaking to the sub-lieutenant. 

“I don’t know what those damn guerrillas did with the 
villagers, if they took them to the mountains or what they 
did”, said Carías, pretending to sound indignant. He was now 
trying to blame the guerrillas when the day before he had