47

 / The long road to justice

Pz

P

It is often thought that only eyes can weep, which is untrue. 

During the half hour that it took her to tell her story, María 

Juliana’s right hand: dark skinned, with bulging veins and 

covered with little brown stains – the hand of an old woman 

– ran up and down her knee as if she were trying to rub away 

a deep pain. That hand was crying for the son who never 

returned home.

Pimentel Ríos – a short man with grey hair – looked at her, 

tilting his head slightly, with his hands folded on the table, 

and the same look on his face as someone who’s watching a 

movie that’s not particularly interesting.

María Esperanza’s son, Salomé Armando,  identified 

Pimentel Ríos as the man who had climbed onto the church 

pulpit and had shouted “Sing, sing!” and had laughed 

mockingly at the women.

“He came to murder my family”, said Salomé Armando, 

pointing at him. Pimentel Ríos’ lips curled slightly with a 

sarcastic smile. He then opened a bottle of Gatorade and 
drank, calmly.

XIX

César Franco Ibáñez testified once again via videolink. After 
living in Mexico City for almost two decades he spoke with a 
strong Mexican accent. He stated that Pimentel Ríos was part 
of the “tropa de asalto”, the fiercest and most violent men  
whom Rivera Martínez trusted above all others. Although he 
described him as being “just another soldier”, a number of 
key details in his testimony depict him as a particularly cruel 
man. 

He was identified as one of the soldiers in charge of 
bludgeoning the peasants with the sledgehammer and 
throwing them into the well and also as the soldier who shot