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The Phenomenology of Terror

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Buried Secrets

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Abstract

In 1978, the same year as the Panzós massacre, the Guatemalan army began a selective campaign of political disappearance and assassination in Guatemala City and other urban centers.1 It also accelerated construction of military bases throughout rural Guatemala. Prior to 1979, the army had divided the country into nine military zones, each centered around a large army base. By 1982, the army had designated each of the twenty-two departments as a military zone, accompanied by multiple army bases in municipalities and army garrisons in villages throughout the country.2 Forced recruitment into the Guatemalan army ensured the requisite number of troops for this extension of the military infrastructure.3 Some of these large army bases, such as those in Rabinal and Nebaj, are structures that have endured to the date of this writing. Other more temporary locations, such as the churches in San Andrés Sajcabajá, Acul, Sacapulas, Joyabaj, Zacualpa, San Pedro Jocopilas, Nebaj, Chajul, Cotzal, Uspantán, Chiché, Canillá, and the Marist monastery of Chichicastenango, which were used by the army as jails, torture and interrogation centers, and clandestine cemeteries, no longer house the army.4 The army grew to have a significant presence in the Ixil area with multiple bases in Nebaj, Chajul, and Cotzal. Soon the Ixil area became known by its army designation as the “Ixil Triangle”—referring to its three municipal centers, Nebaj, Chajul, and Cotzal, within a military schema composed of bases in each of the municipalities as well as many of the surrounding villages.

We are always afraid.

—Don Sebastián

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Notes

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  1. Victoria Sanford
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© 2003 Victoria Sanford

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Sanford, V. (2003). The Phenomenology of Terror. In: Buried Secrets. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403973375_7

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