Patricia describes the difficulty of deciding to leave their homes for the first time to avoid repression and violence after her husband and brother had been detained.
- Interviewee:
- Patricia
Transcription
The first time we fled, we left our houses because we were afraid to be at home, because the soldiers came every day searching for the men. We left for a short time and went to stay in Portillo. We had been in Portillo for eight days when the leaders held an assembly and the said no, that we women should be at home, with the children, that we shouldn’t abandon our houses. So we had to go home, but we were still very afraid. But after we came back, well, we just couldn’t stay at home, we were so afraid, and the men weren’t there anymore. Because they came looking for them repeatedly. My brother had already been detained and taken to Sensunte, and my husband had also been detained. But the first time they were taken to the command post at Patamera they just interrogated them and made them work very hard cutting wood, and they let them go. They came back home. That was on a Saturday, and they only left us in peace through Sunday. On Monday they took them away again, they took my brother. My husband was out working. My brother, according to his wife, they came and threw him to the ground, as if he was a major criminal or an animal. They knocked him down and they took everything he had, the little money he had they took, and they carried him away.