Ramiro remembers: Key witness in Guatemala massacre

[Judi Lynn]

Ramiro remembers: Key witness in Guatemala massacre
Ramiro Cristales was raised by one of the soldiers who allegedly helped slaughter Cristales' entire family.
By Matt McAllester - GlobalPost
Published: May 5, 2010 17:19 ET

NEW YORK — Ramiro Cristales remembers the two palm trees behind his house and the watering hole where his older brother would toss him in when the rains came to their village in the Guatemalan jungle. He remembers his mother’s kindness and his father’s hard work.

And, unfortunately for the former soldiers accused of killing Cristales’ family, Cristales also remembers the massacre that took place 28 years ago in Las Dos Erres, when 251 men, women and children were murdered. He remembers how the Guatemalan soldiers held babies by their legs and smashed their heads. He remembers the moment a soldier plunged a knife into his mother’s neck before throwing her into a well that was filling up with the bodies of villagers. He remembers seeing his father and brother hanging from a tree.

And he remembers when he first saw Santos Alonzo, one of the soldiers guarding the church full of women and children before they were led to the well to be killed. Cristales recalls how Alonzo took him away from the horrors of that day and adopted him, only to treat him like a slave. For the next 15 years, Cristales was forced to address as "father" the man who had helped kill his family.

And now Ramiro is hoping to testify against these soldiers, including Alonzo, who is being held in the U.S. on an immigration violation, in a human rights case in Guatemala.

More:
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/the-americas/100504/survivor-las-dos-erres

LBN:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4369618