Edwin describes his detention and torture in Honduras.
- Chapter:
- Chapter 5: Guerrilla Experiences
- Interviewee:
- Edwin
Transcription
They interrogated and tortured me every half hour. They put me in a boxcar. I remember it well: I was bitten by rats at night, and during the day it was so hot because of the sun. I went four days without food or water. They would bring it, and then they would throw it away. The person guarding me would pour out the water and didn't feed me. For four days... I had received a training on interrogation, and they told me, "Look, when you're captured, there's always a good cop and a bad cop." So I was mentally prepared for that.
"If you want, collaborate with us and we'll get your family out."
"You know what I've already told you," I said, "I can't tell you any more. If I lie to you, you'll beat me, and even if you beat me, I can't tell you any more."
And then the bad one would come. "I've come to kill you, you son of a so-and-so," he said. "I'm going to bite you to death." He would bite my ears. When I started to bleed, he would just spit it out.
Well, I thought, let them do what they want. In any case, I don't have anything. After four days, an officer came. He was more… He wasn't so twisted.
"They haven't brought you any food?" He asked.
That was the first time he said, "Here, have some water." He gave me water. I couldn't swallow. I hadn't had water or food in four days.
On the fourth day, since I had Honduran documents, they asked me: "Where are you from?"
"I'm from San Pedro Sula."
During those four days I kept the same story. Once they asked me... On the fourth night, I heard there was a gringo there, because he spoke English and another guy translated for him. He said, "Well no, ask him if he drinks.
They came late at night, I think it was about 10 p.m. because the other man asked, "What time do you think it is?"
"Ten."
One of them asked me... "Look," the good guy said. "He's a bad one, he killed a lot of people, he really doesn't like you, he's going to tear you to pieces."
"Well anyways, what can I do? You're not going to let me go, so you'll just have your way with me."
"True, but I can help you," he said. "I'll help so that he doesn't do anything to you."
"I don't think you'll help me," I said, "because I've already told you all I know."
The other one arrived and he said, “Look, I have a present for you!"
"Well, you told me you don't drink, right? Well, today you'll learn how to drink," he said. "And you're going to drink it all." It was a whole canteen of liquor.
"Oh no," I thought. "Today I'm really getting it."
They had put my hands behind the back of my chair, I was blindfolded and handcuffed. He started giving me the liquor. "Damn," I thought. Since I hadn't been drinking water I felt my throat burning. When I tried to spit it out, he hit me.
"No," he said, "Swallow! You're going to drink it all."
I was forced to drink and drink until it was all gone. Damn. At the same time I thought, "They just want to get me drunk, to see if I'll tell them anything else." I knew where there was a warehouse. But since they were just going to keep doing the same thing whether or not I talked, I decided to hang in there.
Then at... "Keep questioning him," said a guy who was writing on a typewriter. He came at about 4 a.m. "What has he said?"
He finally came to me and said, "OK, we're going to release you."
"Well, OK," I said.
Then he came back and put fire on my testicles. All I could do was writhe in pain. He laughed, "It smells like something's burning. Oh yeah, it's this guy that's burning, give me some water." He threw the water in my face.
I thought to myself, it's better if they just do it to you all at once, instead of... At 6 a.m. they took me somewhere else and then at 10 a.m. they took me out again.
They had captured two women who were in our shop. One of them had a little girl. They called me by my Salvadoran name because they knew me. Oh, that was the saddest part, because it made them even angrier.
"You son of a...! You had fooled us for four days! You are Salvadoran, your dad is [...], your mom—" Ugh, I thought...
I heard one say, "They just brought in two women." Oh, I thought, it must be them, because they knew I was Salvadoran. That's when they really started in on me.
I said, "Well, now you know what you know, we're in the same situation." That made them even madder.
After five days they said, "We're taking you to El Poy, and those guys are really going to kill you."
"OK," I said.
So they put me in a car again and took me to Santa Rosa de Copán. They held me in the barracks. They kept me there for another four days. So in total I was blindfolded for twelve days. They were going to showcase me in front of the press to take advantage of... They wanted me to say the weaponry was coming from Nicaragua, so that they could blame Nicaragua taking sides in our war.
An officer said to me, "You're lucky, they won't be able to kill you now, they want to show you to the press."
"Alright, then, that's up to you," I said.
They brought me out and had me pretend to take rifles out of the truck, because the press was there, TV stations, everything. At the headquarters in Santa Rosa de Copán they made me pretend I was loading and unloading the same rifles.
After that they said, "We can't kill you now." And then, "We're transferring you tonight, we can't keep you here. If anyone's going kill you, let the Salvadorans do it themselves."
I felt them throw me face down in a car. I knew the streets and I sensed that we weren't heading to El Poy, we were going to San Pedro Sula. We left at around 8 p.m. and arrived in San Pedro Sula at 11 p.m. They brought me to the investigations bureau, which they called the DIN. It was a repressive apparatus, similar to what used to be called the DIC here at that time.
They were told, "No one touch these guys, just put them in this cell."
At that point it was only two of us. The other two had been taken out because I said I didn't know them. After fifteen days the boy and the men were released.
So they said, "These guys are under surveillance and military intelligence control, nobody touch them."
They took us up to a terrace on the fifth floor where that division was. Luckily the cell we were held in only had three people. In the other sections, there were up to eighty small cells. At night they called it the human bed, with one person on top of another.