4 “On July 6, while on a business trip in Huancavelica, Zósimo Hilario Quispe learned that his relatives had disappeared and that his house had been burned down. The following day, Hilario traveled from Huancavelica to the ranch at Rodeo Pampa in the company of a number of representatives of the community of Santa Bárbara and, upon reaching the spot, they found a desolate scene: burned-out houses, food, clothing and other property strewn on the ground, and a lot of blood in the area around the houses. “Later, Hilario Quispe went to the “Misteriosa” mine, arriving there on July 18 with authorities from the Public Prosecutor's Office and some journalists. He said that when they arrived at the site they found braids, fragments of scalp, keys, a piece of tongue and a heel. Another witness, Zenón Cirilo Osnayo Tunque, said he was desperate when he saw the macabre scene at the massacre site: “I found my wife dead, tied up with my own rope, and one of my daughters - I saw half of her little head, I recognized her by her braid, and by the pili mili (hair bobble) she was wearing.” “This witness said that on July 4, villagers who lived near the site of the “Misteriosa” mine saw a group of soldiers trying to erase the evidence and added that 23 community members were detained by the military who were trying to prevent them from entering the mine. He said that thanks to the intervention of the Deputy Prefect of Angaraes the Army released them. “Shortly thereafter, on July 11, 1991, Viviano Hilario Mancha, father and grandfather of the disappeared Ramón Hilario Morán and Héctor Hilario Guillén, respectively, found the half-buried body of his grandson Héctor Hilario at the entrance of the "Misteriosa" mine, along with other bodies he could not recognize. The next day, he reported the discovery to the Huancavelica Provincial Prosecutor's Office and to the Examining Magistrate’s Court of that province.” 9 Attempts to erase the evidence of the massacre “The process of removing the bodies was initially thwarted because the group of community members who went to assist the magistrate’s court was stopped and prevented from reaching the mine by members of the Army, who initially were not wearing their military uniforms. The witnesses Marcelino Chahuayo Arroyo and Zenón Cirilo Osnayo Tunque have consistently maintained that the soldiers held them in an abandoned house very close to the mine from 10:00 in the morning until 5:30 in the afternoon, but that at approximately 3:30 they felt an explosion, due - according to them - to the fact that the soldiers were dynamiting the entrance to the mine in order to erase the traces of the massacre, and then threw the human remains that were left over into a very deep ravine. “It should be noted that this group of people went to the mine on foot and used a different route than the one used by the authorities who were traveling in vans and were accompanied by journalists. “According to the testimonies of the victims' relatives, the vehicles of the official delegation strangely ran out of fuel and were therefore unable to arrive at the location of the events on the date initially planned. This circumstance would have allowed members of the Army to take advantage of this inconvenient delay of the authorities, gaining time to try to erase traces of the massacre committed. 9 Report of the CVR, volume VII, pages 534-535.