15 municipal seat, 14 villages and sixty hamlets,56 including the village of Chichupac and the neighboring communities (Xeabaj, Chijom, Coyojá, El Tablón, Toloxcoc and El Apazote). 68. In 1981, the municipality of Rabinal had 22,730 inhabitants, 82% of whom were MayaAchí. Their subsistence activities included farming and planting. The indigenous people in that area speak the Achí language and have their own vision of the cosmos and spirituality, which is reflected through customs having to do with dress, dance, music and the rites practice to honor their dead.58 57 69. In the 1970s, the municipality of Rabinal was not a combat area. The CEH recorded that there was some guerrilla propaganda activity and that the region was used as a staging point for logistical supplies, recruitment of personnel or as a rearguard.59 The CEH concluded that because of Rabinal’s strategic location, the State believed that “it needed to be placed under complete control.”60 70. According to the CEH’s sources, this explains why the level of violence was so high in the municipality of Rabinal during the armed conflict.61 The CEH found that “a military outpost was operating” within the Rabinal region; its commanders “were behind almost all the human rights violations attributable to State agents.”62 Furthermore according to the testimony of people who had lived in the region since 1981, the military forced the residents of the village of Chichupac and the neighboring communities to participate in the PAC.63 71. The CEH registered 20 massacres within the Rabinal region. Nevertheless, one witness claimed that “not one village escaped the massacres.”64 The CEH also documented the fact that in the period between 1981 and 1983, 4,411 persons from the municipality of Rabinal were murdered; all were civilians, and 99.8% were members of the Maya-Achí.65 The CEH concluded that “the savagery with which the area was attacked supports the thesis that the Army regarded it as a strategic area and, at the time of the conflict, identified the region’s population as ‘the enemy within’.”66 2.1.1. The massacre of January 8, 1982 56 Annex 3. CEH, Memory of Silence, Volume III, Human Rights Violations and Acts of Violence, par. 3362. 57 Annex 3. CEH, Memory of Silence, Volume III, Human Rights Violations and Acts of Violence, par. 3362. 58 Annex 6. Communication from the petitioners dated December 13, 2007. 59 Annex 3. CEH, Memory of Silence, Volume III, Human Rights Violations and Acts of Violence, par. 3365. 60 Annex 3. CEH, Memory of Silence, Volume III, Human Rights Violations and Acts of Violence, par. 3365. 61 Annex 3. CEH, Memory of Silence, Volume III, Human Rights Violations and Acts of Violence, par. 3363. 62 Annex 3. CEH, Memory of Silence, Volume III, Human Rights Violations and Acts of Violence, par. 3363. 63 Annex 7. Statement made by Miguel Sic Osorio to the Public Prosecution Service, dated October 25, 2000. Certification of Case File No. 001-2005-95839, pp. 109-110. Annex 1 to the petitioners’ communication of December 13, 2007; Annex 7. Statement made by Sebastian Chen on October 25, 2000. Certification of Case File No. 001-2005-95839, pp. 123-124. Annex 1 to the petitioners’ communication of December 13, 2007. 64 Annex 3. CEH, Memory of Silence, Volume III, Human Rights Violations and Acts of Violence, par. 3364 65 Annex 3. CEH, Memory of Silence, Volume III, Human Rights Violations and Acts of Violence, paragraphs 3367-3368. 66 Annex 3. CEH, Memory of Silence, Volume III, Human Rights Violations and Acts of Violence, par. 3367.