Toribio remembers the 1986 invasion of Arcatao, known as the “Desembarco”, and how he and his family fled town to hide in a cave.
- Interviewee:
- Toribio
Transcription
One afternoon just like today, the woman in charge told us, "Look, there is an invasion planned."
She said she didn't know for which dates, but she said, "What I want is for as many people as possible. To find places in the bases where they were before and retreat there," she said. "Because there could be a massacre here, but better to retreat than for all of us to die. Go look for the places where you lived before."
She was referring to Los Planes or Patamera, because she knew that there was going to be an invasion in the community, because they had been informed that a big group of people had returned. You know, there were always informers who revealed that there were tons of people here who they could capture. So the people in charge told us, here it was Esperanza, who lives near here. She was in charge of us. She was always by our side. She gave us the order to retreat. She said, "Everyone who is able should retreat, so that you can find a way to defend yourselves," she said.
As soon as we heard that we left, we went to El Sitio, near Los Planes. But we didn't go to sleep in the houses, in the bases. We always had to find a place in the forest, outside, because they would look for us in the houses. In the forest too. Nothing happened the day that we left, but the next day we heard the sound of the helicopters circling. There was a flight of about six helicopters coming, we hadn't even woken up. We were sleeping in a little pass that we found. The first thing that happened was a grenade, that's what we called it, that was the first thing… it was me, another man, another woman, my partner and two kids, So I told them, "Get up, we need to go. They're dropping grenades nearby, we have to get out of here and into the woods."
I knew the area, it was a quarry where we had hidden. We went and hid in a cave where we stored grain before the war, we would store grain barrels in the caves, and so we went under some stones and hid where we stored some boxes of clothes and grain. The helicopters flew over, dropping bomb after bomb, we saw them up close, crossing over, and we asked God for nothing to happen to us. But the invasion was in town, that's where it was critical. T hey beat those who stayed behind, there were some who… by prayer time the day of the invasion some people came from there, beaten up, saying that they were going to Las Mesas and were not coming back.