The killing of ducks: analysis of historical memory in the reconstruction of scenarios of massacres during the internal armed conflict in Guatemala

Abstract

Among the narrations related to the armed conflict in the Tz’utujil region stands out a fact called by the settlers as the massacre of the ducks. This paper articulates three sources of information that reconstruct the events that took place on January 7 of the year of 1981 in the San Isidro Chacayá farm, to say, testimonies of relatives of victims, records of the Judicial Branch and illustrative case 11 of the Commission for the Historical Clarification. The methodology used was qualitative and, through documentary research in the Regional Archives of the Courts of Quetzaltenango, two files related to the massacre were located. The critical analysis of sources was used as an interpretation strategy for the judicial files to create a narrative that evidenced what happened in the massacre from the state logic through the content of the archives. On the other hand, there were five interviews with family members of people who died in this case and the narrations were contrasted with the file information. Among the findings is the logic used by the army so that the fact was not reported to the State and the dissemination of corpses in places far from the juris diction of Santiago Atitlán.