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 / The long road to justice

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massacre who had stayed in Las Cruces and deal with other 
issues such as domestic violence. However, she crashed 
against the wall of official bureaucracy: a gigantic and 
absurd machine that can only process numbers, rules and 
reports. The director of the local health clinic admonished 
her for visiting people in their homes rather than waiting 
for them to seek help at the clinic, as well as going beyond 
counseling the victims of the massacre and assisting other 
vulnerable groups. In May last year, she resigned and now 
works with an NGO in the department of Baja Verapaz 
that offers counseling services to the victims of the Plan de 
Sánchez massacre.

Two years ago, as the investigation to bring Carlos Carías, 
Manuel Pop Sun, Daniel Martínez and Reyes Collin Gualip 
to trial made progress, the Attorney General’s Office began 
to inquire among the survivors, who would be fit to testify 
in court, leaving out those who were too elderly or mentally 
fragile. 

Those who could not testify were assigned a not less important 
task: they would morally support the members of the group 
who would testify by accompanying them to Guatemala City 
or simply attending regular group meetings so that those who 
had to testify felt that they were not alone and that they were 
speaking on behalf of the survivor community. 

In December 2010, the anniversary of the massacre was 
marked with a symbolic event in which three doves that 
embodied the three generations that were slain during the 
massacre: children, adolescents and adults, were set free. 
Watching them soar into the sky was also a symbolic way of 
letting the pain and sadness go.