Emeteria describes the process of resettlement in Guarjila, Chalatenango, and the dangers returnees faced due to landmines.
- Interviewee:
- Emeteria
Transcription
We were there for seven years and came back in 1987. [Where did you resettle?] Over in Guarjila. That’s where they threw us, and back then the area was all a big pasture. They left us out there in the street, when there was barely a small road that went through. People coming from Las Flores passed by, and they brought us goods to Guarjila. There was a warehouse where they left food for the group. It was an old group they had there and they left them grains and everything. They carried things on their heads to Las Flores. Then each person would come and take whatever portion they got. Those that had an animal, brought their animal. Anyway, they left us on the street. That night when we arrived in the afternoon, we slept in the street, next to the pasture. We couldn’t go into the pasture because there were land mines. So we couldn't. What the men did was set the field on fire. You should have heard the explosions! It exploded because there were bullets and those, what are they called? Grenades. You should have heard them exploding. They set the place where we used to live on fire, and we couldn’t go deeper into the hills because that meant dying. A lot of people hurt their feet because they stepped on land mines. There are some people who became handicapped from that. One day, my old man and I went to fetch some wood and we saw some ladies and a girl go by. A few minutes later we heard the explosion. The girl fell on the mine and it ripped her stomach open. Her intestines were hanging out. My husband had a horse so he put the girl on it and took her to the hospital. She didn’t die because they took her to Chalate. She didn’t die.