The fear to go back to those terrible years is reflected in the testimony taken by ALAI news agency after the government declared a state of emergency in that part of the country.

“The military have already killed our parents, women and children are suffering the sadness and terror. Please end the state of emergency”, said Aurora on the telephone. She was forced to flee her home because of the persecution by the security forces. Meanwhile, social organizations were filing a report over this situation and the Army and police officials continued with the arrests.

The state of emergency decreed by the administration of former military Otto Perez Molina in the area bordering Mexico has already led to the detention of 15 people accused of participating in an “upheaval” on May 1st, and it is causing terror among the residents of Santa Cruz Barillas.

These were the declarations of the MayaWaqib’ Kej National Coordination who, in a letter addressed to Perez Molina, demanded the “immediate” end of the measure decreed for Huehuetenango department, so that all constitutional guarantees of the local residents are reinstated.

Daniel Pascual, coordinator of the Peasant Unity Committee (CUC) and leader of the Waquib´ Kej, said in a conference that they would deliver the document signed by 200 people, to the Secretary of the Presidency, to the Embassies in Guatemala and to other international organizations.

Pascual’s explanation is clear: the state of emergency only caused fear among the population and it has failed to change the situation in Santa Cruz Barillas, where the local communities took to the streets to express their unrest over the building of a hydroelectric dam- promoted by Hidro Santa Cruz- which is projected to be built in a ceremonial place and that would have terrible impacts on the use of water for agriculture.

The Guatemalan organizations recall that in the recent years other states of emergency were decreed in Alta Verapaz, Petén, San Marcos and Fraijanes. “The use of troops in social protection actions and the restriction of guarantees is only a mechanism that shows the government’s failure in exercising democracy”, they concluded.