Surrounded by coffins, ribbons, and three forensic anthropologists, families of victims from Guatemala’s 36-year internal conflict received their deceased relatives’ remains on January 25, 2007. The families fathered in a church in Xaxmoxan, Chajul, Quiché, Guatemala, finding closure more than two years after the National Coordination of Widows in Guatemala (CONAVIGUA) began compling witness testimonies from villages in the municipality of Chajul. During the internal conflict from 1960 to 1996, Quiché’s population suffered 263 massacres, according to the Recuperation of Historic Memory report, known as REMHI and entitled Guatemala: Never Again. In the words of one son who received his father’s remains: “This is a great moment. My father has arrived. The martyrs are home.”

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In The Fray Contributor