Detained During Resettlement

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While returning from Honduras to resettle Arcatao, Arminda and others were detained at a military detachment for fifteen days.

Interviewee:
Topics:

Transcription

[How did you end up resettling here in Arcatao?]

Because my parents were here. They came to get me. I came back through Nombre de Jesús, but that didn’t go so well. You know, since the country remained in a state of war, they stopped us at El Paraíso. They held us there for 15 days with barely any food. They held all of us who came on a full bus, including children. We were detained. With a lot of children, people and we could barely change our clothes.
First, they brought us here to Chalate, to DM1 (Military Detachment 1). From there, they sent us to the mountains, at El Paraíso, where they detained us. Only because we were on our way here.

[What did you do while you were detained there?]

We were just there, waiting for them to let us leave. I don’t know… We just waited until they let us leave. What were we doing? Nothing, we couldn’t go anywhere. And how? We were a bunch of women with kids. Just some women, some men, and children.

[When they let you out, then you came here?]

When they brought us to Chalate with a safe-passage letter, as they called it, each person decided where to go. Because some had one destination, others had a different destination. In my case, since I’d been told to go through Nombre de Jesús, I had to catch a bus towards the terminal, and then grab another bus towards Nombre de Jesús, where they would pick me up. My dad was going to take me to a place called Quipure. That is how I came back to Arcatao.