We arrived in Guatemala late last night (May 4) and stayed at the Casa San Benito in Guatemala City. After a breakfast of tortillas, beans, eggs and papaya, we loaded into our mini-bus and drove to the town of Rabinal, the centre of the Maya Achí community.
In the afternoon, we walked to the municipal cemetery where we met Jesús Tecú Osorio, a Maya Achí human rights activist. Jesús led us through the cemetery, walking around tombs and grave sites to a back wall. There he showed us monument after monument to commemorate the members of Maya Achí communities who were killed in massacres carried out by the Guatemalan army and Civil Defense Patrols. As Jesús told us the stories of the massacres he pointed to the locations of the communities in the hills around Rabinal, making them seem so close. He also recounted the roles of the Civil Defense Patrols and the community members forced to commit atrocities against other members of their communities.

The delegation shares a meal with Maya Achí activist Jesús Tecú Osorio
Jesús then joined us for a big dinner and the talk shifted from the heaviness of genocide to storytelling and laughing. We ended our first full day together with a reflection circle, sharing our emotional responses to a big day full of new experiences for many of us and the heaviness of processing the massacres of the Maya Achí communities in Rabinal.
Please read the next delegation update in this series here.
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