19 83. Witnesses state that subsequent to the massacre, the Army soldiers went to the village of Chichupac almost every day to chase and rape women and kill villagers.98 The statements tell of how the Army soldiers burned homes, destroyed crops and stole domestic animals and objects of value. The REMHI documented survivors’ statements: They took our things, our hens, our cattle. Eight days after leaving, they pillaged our property and set it on fire. They stole coffee, candy, a bed, furnishings, animals; they didn’t leave a thing standing. The daughter they had killed no longer had any clothes. They stole twelve newly calved cows; they destroyed my cooking pot and my sugarcane press; they set fire to three houses. They began carrying of our new clothing, hens and cattle; they ate it near the clinic. They stole one of my fattened cows; they skinned the cow and the soldiers and civil self-defense patrollers ate it. They cut down our cornfield, bananas and sugar cane; they stole fabric, sashes, 99 clothing, hoes and machetes . 84. The CEH also found that in the wake of the Chichupac massacre, “the Army returned to continue the destruction.” It reported that one member of the PAC asserted that: My second assignment was to throw away the corn and cane crops of the people who went to the mountains, Chichupac (…). The Army said to take everything; that it was for them; some took 100 advantage, but others said: “poor people”. If they found people, they left them there dead. 85. Some survivors from the village had to flee to the mountains for safe haven. Others moved to different cities.101 One woman from the village said that “the village was virtually destroyed and the people who left Chichupac didn’t want to abandon their homes and land but left all the same (…) during the period of violence everything was destroyed, even their houses.”102 86. The petitioners said that in 1984, the National Army set up a model village in Chichupac, which they called “La Colonia”. Their contention was that the people were forced to live there, and that the place was under heavy military control, with around 300 soldiers posted there. Testimony indicates that the women in the model village were forced to cook for the soldiers.103 87. The file for this case contains September 2008 communications in which the then Constitutional President of the Republic, Álvaro Colom Caballeros, stated that “on behalf of the Guatemalan State (…) we beg pardon for the anguish and pain caused during the internal armed 98 Annex 6. The petitioners’ communication of December 13, 2007; Annex 7. Brief by Fabiana Chen and Teresa Cacaj, December 5, 1997. Certification of Case File No. 001-2005-95839, pp. 186-195. Annex 1 of the petitioners’ communication of December 13, 2007. 99 Annex 4. REMHI. Guatemala: Never Again! Report of the Recovery of Historical Memory Project. Volume II, The Methodology of Violence. Case 7463, Chichupac, Rabinal, Baja Verapaz, 1982-83. 100 Annex 3. CEH, Memory of Silence, Volume III, Human Rights Violations and Acts of Violence, par. 3391. 101 Annex 6. The petitioners’ communication of December 13, 2007. 102 Annex 6. The petitioners’ communication of December 13, 2007. 103 Annex 10. Statement by Juana García Depaz, June 9, 1995. Case No. 802-95. Annex 7 of the petitioners’ communication of December 13, 2007; Annex 9. Statement by Juana García Depaz, July 26, 2001. Judicial case No. 255-93, pp. 14-15. Annex 2 of the petitioners’ communication of December 13, 2007.