Víctor describes his detention in 1977 on his way back home from a meeting.
- Interviewee:
- Víctor
Transcription
So in ’77, I went back [to prison] again. I was coming back from a meeting in Las Vueltas, because I was responsible for the meetings there. So on the way back, I was with another comrade. We were in Las Flores in the home of a comrade who gave us food, and I said, “Look, let’s not take the bus, let’s walk.” “No,” he said, “We’re going by bus, there’s no problem, we’ll get off in Las Crucitas,” which is just outside Arcatao. I didn’t say anything but I had a feeling that something was going to happen to us. So we headed off, we got on the bus and when we were passing Las Flores, there was a command post there on the main road, the guards there just watched us pass, they didn’t pull anyone off, they didn’t stop the bus, we kept on our way. In El Zapote, below Nueva Trinindad, there were three guardsmen from Arcatao, and when the bus passed one came out from a house where there was a store, he came out of the store and stood there watching the bus, but the bus went past, they didn’t stop it. Up the road, right where there had been the ambush where they killed our comrade Jesús Rojas, by the schoolhouse, they caught up with the bus. The guardsmen came racing and stopped the bus. They climbed onboard and didn’t ask anything, they pulled me and my comrade off the bus. So they pulled us off the bus and the bus left, they tied me up and handcuffed me. They hadn’t yet tied up the other guy, but the way things were going I thought, “They’re going to kill us for sure.” I wasn’t carrying any documents, they had taken my ID card away and never gave it back, so I thought, “It’s our turn to die here,” and I started running, but they caught me. I was handcuffed, so I couldn’t run well, so they caught me. While they were chasing me the other comrade took the chance to flee and got away, but they grabbed me again. Ugh! When the grabbed me they started kicking me, punching me, pistol-whipping me, everything, they hit me with the butt of their rifles here and cut me, I was covered in blood. Then they brought me back here, to sleep in the command post, handcuffed by my feet and arms, I slept like that. The next day they took me to Chalatenango and turned me in, I was in prison for three months in Chalate.