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herself up to appear normal in the video. They gave her clothes and offered her
make-up. Although she used little make-up usually, she decided to put on a lot of
make-up and do her hair in a different way so that those who saw her would see that
she had changed, had a different aspect. They began to film the video the same
day. Her captors wrote the text and she had to read it. She very much regretted
having to say words that were not true. She knew that the companions that heard
her would consider her a traitor.
They continued recording all of Saturday. On Sunday they did not record. That day,
a man who was responsible for surveillance, entered the room where she was kept
and ordered her to take off the hood and look at him, then he asked her if she
recognized him, because he had been watching her. Then, they continued talking
and he told her that the Army “had her,” he also told her that they had got hold of
her letters during a confrontation in Chajul.
They continued to film the video on Monday and Tuesday. There were many
problems during the filming, so that she continued to receive threats and pressure,
because she did not remember the text and she always looked nervous and
unnatural. On Wednesday, when they had finished recording the video, they took
her out to make a telephone call. They obliged her to change her clothes and put her
in a “pick up.” They took her to a place in Zone 7 and there she spoke to her father
and told him that she was on her way back and not to worry. On the return journey,
they again put her in the car violently, placed her head between the legs of the man
next to her and left at high speed. It was one of the hardest moments because she
believed that they were going to kill her.
On Thursday, they told her that they would let her go, but she must promise not to
leave the country and she should never tell anyone what had happened, because,
otherwise, they would kill her or some member of her family. They told her that she
should go and request amnesty and, once she was there, call the Minister of Defense
to ask for protection.
Lastly, after eight days’ captivity, they removed her from the room, they took her to
a vehicle, they returned the 30 cents, the keys and the watch they had taken away
from her and they left her near the Office of the Attorney General (Ministerio
Público). Before she left the vehicle, they repeated to her “[d]on’t try and escape
because the whole area here is watched, and you, (that is me) have to go and do
what we have agreed.” When she reached the building of the Office of the Attorney
General, she asked to speak with the Attorney General, Acisclo Valladares Molina,
who came down almost immediately to receive her, with an attitude that was “too
special.”
She told him that she wanted to take advantage of the amnesty,
communicate with the Minister of Defense and speak to her family. Subsequently,
they made the respective telephone calls and they went to the court building to sign
the amnesty agreement. They reached the office of the judge and she signed the
amnesty agreement immediately. She noticed that the agreement did not show the
time at which it was signed, but one or two hours before she appeared, which she
thought strange. Neither the judge nor Acisclo Valladares asked her about her
situation or about what had happened. She then returned to the Office of the
Attorney General and met her family there.
She stayed at the Archdiocese for eight days while her departure from the country
was being processed. Finally, she managed to travel to the United States. Even
today, she continues to be afraid.