Louisa Reynolds /

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establish the victims’ sex. Twenty skeletons had bullet marks 
and twenty two shells were found in the well, together with 
crockery, toys, spectacles, hats and a pocket calendar from 
1982: the year when life in Dos Erres ground to a halt under 
the blows of a sledgehammer, an item that was also found 
among the remains.

More bodies were found in La Aguada and Los Salazares, 
totalling 201 victims. Each skeleton, with its items of clothing, 
was taken to the town hall in Las Cruces, but no one dared 
to come forward and claim the bodies. However, during the 
following days, candles and floral tributes that had been left 
by family members who arrived under the cloak of darkness, 
fearing they could be intercepted by the watchful eye that 
is always ready to betray those who dare to speak, began to 
appear next to  each body.

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As it was difficult to break down the wall of silence and 
encourage survivors to talk about the massacre, Aura Elena 
had to find other ways of piecing together the truth. A few 
days after the exhumation, when someone told her that a 
former soldier who lived a few hours away from Las Cruces 
was willing to talk, she found her first lead. 

Some members of the UN Verification Mission in 
Guatemala (MINUGUA), which oversaw the signing of 
the Peace Accords and remained in the country until 2004, 
followed her from a distance due to the dangers involved in 
investigating the case. 

This is how Aura Elena found a former Kaibil soldier who 
told her in full detail what had happened in Dos Erres 
on December 7, 1982. Every time that the man watched