21 103. According to survivors’ testimony, military personnel began killing people in Jocote Amarillo at around 7 a.m. on December 13, 1981. They stayed about two hours in the village. There was 103 constant firing, cries of fear and pain, and “the clamor of people being killed” . When those who had 104 been able to flee returned home they found the burned bodies of their relatives. 104. Domingo Vigil Amaya, for example, testified that the national armed forces killed four members of his family. As to how he found his relatives, he said that “in the patio under an orange tree lay my wife with my little girl, Maria Bernalda, in her arms, both completely dead, my wife had half her face nearly torn away by a bullet, and the girl had a bullet hole below the ear. Then, inside the house, I 105 found my other two children, dead and burned.” 105. Approximately 23 victims were identified. See. Annex of the present report. 7. The massacre in the canton of Cerro Pando 106 106. The canton of Cerro Pando is about 4 km to the south of the village of El Mozote . Although when the soldiers arrived on December 13, 1981 many people had taken hiding in the 107 countryside, more than 100 were killed, and their relatives found many of their bodies “carbonized”. 107. In his statement on the massacre, Bernadino Guevara Chicas said that on December 13, 1981 he was at home in Cerro Pando when he saw a green helicopter fly over and, within half an hour, he heard shooting about 10 blocks from his house. He saw a big cloud of smoke rising from all the houses in the village. Around noon a group of about 50 men wearing olive-green uniforms came to his house and one of them ordered him to leave the house, asking what his religion was, to which he answered Catholic. The soldier told him that because of that he would be saved. He left with his family and when he came back he saw that his house was already being consumed by flames. Subsequently he encountered his six-year-old nephew, who told him that his mother and his sisters had been killed. The witness saw the 108 burned bodies of some 90 people. 108. Approximately 143 victims were identified. 109 See. Annex of the present report. 109. In the context of this massacre, about 20 people took refuge in a cave in the hills of Cerro Ortiz, but they were discovered by the soldiers who, without any warning, threw a grenade into the cave 110 and then went away. Those victims who could walk abandoned the cave. 110. Approximately 15 victims were identified. 111 See. Annex of the present report. 103 Ibid. Juan Bautista Marquez declared that in Jocote Amarillo he succeeded in hiding with his wife and children near the house of a resident, where they heard gunfire at around 7 a.m.. Statement of Juan Bautista Marquez before the Second Court of First Instance of San Francisco Gotera, October 30, 1990, Court record (Annex 2 to the petitioners’ communication of July 7, 2006). 104 Tutela Legal, op. cit. 105 Statement of Domingo Vigil Amaya before the Second Court of First Instance of San Francisco Gotera, March 5, 1991, Court record (Annex 2 to the petitioners’ communication of July 7, 2006). 106 Tutela Legal, op. cit. 107 Ibid. 108 Statement of Bernardino Guevara Chicas before the Second Court of First Instance of San Francisco Gotera, January 23, 1991, Court record (Annex 2 to the petitioners’ communication of July 7, 2006). 109 Tutela Legal, op. cit. 110 Ibid. 111 Ibid.

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