Pedro remembers when he joined the UTC (Rural Workers’ Union), which would have secret meetings so as to avoid repression.
Transcription
So when I was older, and had married, there was a presentation by the UTC (Rural Workers’ Union), and they said that we should join. The catechists also lit the light, they were always saying that we should organize with the UTC. So I got organized with the UTC, and we had meetings in the woods, because the armed forces prohibited us from meeting. So when the Guards would come, for example, there used to be a Guard, they would come to the valley asking, “So, which ones of you are part of the UTC, do you know?” “No, no one’s talking about the UTC here yet.” The Guards would question anyone. But at that time…they didn’t kill them, they would just scold them and hit them with their sticks or their riles, or kick them in the chest, and then they would go to the next valley to ask who was with the UTC. What were we supposed to say? I—we—there was a secretary general who would convoke the people and we would go into the woods, into the deep forest. And as we won over more people the group got bigger and bigger, so then they chose a secretary general, a treasurer, and another, another, who—I don’t remember exactly what they called it, but there were five people who had specific roles, each of them different. Later they named me to the production post, and there was another for…I don’t remember…treasurer, propaganda. They put out newsletters, they would bring them in suitcases and at night they would throw them all over the valley, they said “UTC”. So when that started, the Guard became more aggressive when they came to the valleys. When you would go to work, when you got as far away as that tree they would say, “Drop your machete,” and you had to drop it, you had to drop it like this, you had to throw it far away, and then they would come closer, saying, “What’s our name?” “So and so.” “What did you say your name was?” “So and so.” Whack! They would hit you here, and you would hear a sound like crickets chirping, they would hit you here, in the ear. And other things like that, they would come to the valleys—they were civilians just like you, but they carried rifles, and the soldiers—the Guards started killing people, as soon as they saw them. The first time we weren’t afraid, but they killed six people in the valley of La Joya, at Las Lomas, in another valley, and after that we didn’t sleep at home anymore, we fled, we slept in the woods.