Case in point

How ironic that two days after I make a post concerning child stealing and lynchings that I should receive a site mate who was evacuated from her town for just that reason.

The director of the Healthy Schools program called Wednesday morning to inform me that as a result of an “incident” in Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, the volunteer from that site was relocating to Tactic and was scheduled to arrive that afternoon. The incident that occurred in Fray involved an angry mob that attempted to lynch the CTA (the director of schools in the area), the mayor, and visiting members of the Ministry of Education who the townspeople claimed were running a child stealing ring.

These accusations stemmed from rumors of a dead girl being found on the outskirts of town missing her organs the preceding weekend and reports that five children had been stolen from a local school the morning of the unsuccessful lynching. Two months prior a child had been stolen and transported to Cobán, where the 17-year-old kidnapper attempted to sell him. The kidnapper was apprehended, taken back to Fray, and tied to a school flagpole to be burnt to death. Instead, he got off with a severe beating.

The members of the Ministry of Education and the mayor were all meeting with the CTA in her office late in the afternoon when the lynch mob formed. What started out as 30 machete bearing angry men eventually swelled into over 1,500 people surrounding the CTA’s office. Everyone managed to escape seeking refuge in “safe houses” and hiding out in the surrounding mountains, until eventually evacuating the town by boat (the townspeople had blocked off all the roads). The mob set all the vehicles of the Ministry of Education on fire and burnt the mayor’s dog to death.

Michelle (my new site mate) was actually waiting for a scheduled appointment outside the CTA’s office (the CTA was her counterpart—PC lingo for the person with whom we are to work most closely for our assigned project) when the first two truckloads of armed men arrived. Knowing any rumors of child stealing are eventually tied to gringos, she wisely left the area, went to her house, and informed Peace Corps of the happenings. With just an evacuation backpack of essentials, she left Fray on the first bus out the following morning at 4:30.

While my situation obviously in no way compares to what Michelle has gone through (she can’t even go back to Fray to collect her things for at least a couple of weeks), my Peace Corps experience has/will change considerably as a result of this too. Out of my whole training group I am the only one in the department of Alta Verapaz, and I was fully expecting to be the only volunteer in Tactic until at least the end of November when the new group moves out to site, if not for my entire service. A part of me regrets not having Tactic all to myself, but then I am also thankful to have someone with whom I can speak English. Perhaps that is a bad thing, though. Vamos a ver.