The Government said they had no troops in the area
©Scott Sines
Kaibiles, The Peten, Guatemala, early 1980s — About this time it seemed like every country in Central America had a civil war going on. The war in Guatemala was the longest running and bloodiest of them all at that time. The government of Efrain Rios Mont was convinced that the indigenous Mayans and Campesinos in the northwestern jungles were communists and their villages’ hotbeds of dissent. Rumors of slaughter and genocide against the Indians by government troops were common but the government denied it had its counter-insurgency troops in the region. They were generally acknowledged as the meanest fighting army in Central America.
John Burnett and I were in the area working on a story about a family of evangelical missionaries living deep in the jungles along the Rio Pasion. Their motto was ‘How to Love the Lord and Live Like Americans’. Elam, the head of the family, claimed to see Angels on the riverbanks and his wife complained of boils. We travelled by boat with the family to a remote chapel to hear Elam preach his gospel. Lantern light wasn’t enough so I set up two remotely triggered flashes and had one in my hand. All trained on the pulpit where Elam would be speaking.
Everything was going fine until the back door opened and a dozen or so troops came in and sat down in the back of the hut. It was a picture that had to be made because the government was denying it had troops in the region. I got up and turned my lights toward the back of the room, gave it a few heartbeats and shot this picture. I re-rolled the film and gave it to John. He walked out ahead of me because I had lights to take down. They didn’t search John but when I walked out they took all the film I had. It’s a very average picture but it is important because it was proof that the government was lying.
