Santiago Atitlan is across the lake from Panajachel. It is a small Tz´útujil Mayan community of around 25,000 people. On December 2nd, 1990 one of the most notorious masacres of the 36 year Guatemalan civil war occured here. Sometime in 1980, the army arrived in Santiago Atitlan and established a base here, despite the fact that these Indigenous people had no real contact with the outside world. For the next 10 years many people were killed or disappeared at the hands of the army. The people of the community cooperated with the guerilla movement in an attempt to expel the army from their town. Over the course of these ten years, economic progess in this town was set back decades.

On December 2nd, 1990, around 5,000 people spontaneously gathered in front of the military base to protest the army´s presence and to ask questions about someone who had recently disappeared. This as a peaceful protest by unarmed villagers. The army opened fire on the crowd killing 13 people and wounding 23 more, including several children. Although this was only one of several hundred masacres committed by the army during the war, this one recieved a large amount of attention both in Guatemala and around the world. Instead of running when fired on, the pčople stood in solidarity and didn´t allow the army to capture the bodies of the killed (so they could dress them up as guerillas). There was undeniable proof of the masacre and the incident brought international attention to the Guatemalan conflict for the first time. The United States was finally forced to stop giving massive amounts of aid to the Guatemalan army. The army left Santiago Atitlan shortly later. Santiago Atitlan was the first town in Guatemala to sucessfully expell the army. Some of these pictures are from the ¨Park of the Peace¨ which is in the exact spot where the masacre took place. The victims are burried there as well.

Some birds that lived oustide my room at the hostel I stayed at.