TABLE OF CONTENTS
Descriptive Summary
Scope and
Contents Note
Restrictions
Index Terms
Administrative Information
Description of Series
I. Edited Production Footage
II.Series
2, Unedited Footage
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Jesús Tecú Osorio's Footage of Rabinal, Guatemala
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Creator |
Tecú Osorio, Jesús,
Witness
(organization) |
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Title |
Jesús Tecú Osorio's footage from
Rabinal, Guatemala |
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Dates: |
1996-2001 |
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Abstract |
Jesús Tecú Osorio’s footage
of Rabinal, Guatemala contains two short documentaries, Derecho a Justicia / A Right to Justice (in Spanish and
English) and A Massacre Remembered (in English),
as well as unedited footage of interviews conducted for the documentaries, and
b-roll footage from Guatemala. |
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Accession No. |
2011-02 |
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OCLC Record No. |
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Extent |
39
videos |
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Language |
Spanish,
Achi,
English |
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Repository |
Human Rights Documentation Initiative, The
University of Texas at Austin |
This collection contains
video footage shot by Jesús Tecú Osorio, an activist and survivor of the March
13, 1982 massacre in which 177 Mayan-Achi women and children in Río Negro,
Rabinal were tortured, raped, and murdered by the Guatemalan army and army-led
civil patrol groups. The Guatemalan counter-insurgency campaign razed 440
villages, including Río Negro. It is estimated that at least 5,000 Mayans in
the Rabinal area were massacred in 1981-1982. The Guatemalan military’s
counterinsurgency campaign targeted Río Negro, and the area of Rabinal in
general, because the inhabitants of Río Negro refused to leave their ancestral
lands for the Chixoy Hydroelectric Dam. The Guatemalan army not only
perpetrated the massacres, but also forced "civil patrollers" (called PACs or
Patrullas de Autodefensa Civil) to enlist and murder their neighbors. The
governments of Efrain Rios Montt and Romeo Lucas García supervised and directed
the army's genocidal campaigns. Rios Montt, Lucas García, and all other
high-ranking officials who participated in the campaign continued to hold high
government posts with impunity.
Jesús Tecú Osorio was 11 years old when
he witnessed the massacre of his family and fellow villagers. After the
massacre, the patrolmen responsible for the massacre held Osorio and 17 other
child survivors captive as servants.
Osorio currently works to expose
systematic human rights violations and to ensure that those responsible are
brought to justice. Along with widows and other survivors, he helped found
organization, ADIVIMA (Asociación para el Desarollo Integral de las Víctimas de
la Violencia en las Verapaces, Maya Achí / Association for the Integral
Development of the Victims of Violence in the Verapaces, Maya Achi), which
works to break Guatemala’s climate of impunity. In 1993, Osorio spearheaded the
campaign to exhume mass graves in Rabinal and bring charges against the
patrollers responsible for the massacres. In 1996, Osorio won the Reebok Human
Rights Award. In 2002, he published his memoir, Memoria de las masacres de Río
Negro; recuerdo de mis padres y memoria para mis hijos; Natalie Armstrong
translated the memoir into English in 2003 and it was published under the
title, The Rio Negro Massacres. Osorio continues to work on ending the economic
and social injustices in the Rabinal community by leading 25,000 people in
their ongoing campaign for compensation after the government violently
displaced them in order to use their land for the Chixoy Hydroelectric
Project.
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This collection is divided into two main series:
Series 1, Edited Production Footage,
2000-2002
This series contains two WITNESS co-productions,
Derecho a la justicia / A Right to Justice and A Massacre
Remembered, and an edited video of a meeting in Spanish and Achi.
Abstracts are provided by WITNESS. Videos are ordered alphabetically by
title.
Series 2, Unedited
Footage, 1996-2002
This series contains unedited footage of
interviews that were conducted for the documentary as well as b-roll footage
from Guatemala.
Subseries
1, Interview Footage, 1996-2002
This subseries contains an
interview conducted by WITNESS with Jesus Tecu Osorio and interviews that
Osorio conducted with witnesses of the massacres at Chilagua, Rio Negro, and
Rabinal, Guatemala. Abstracts are provided by WITNESS. Videos are ordered
alphabetically by title.
Subseries 2, B-roll Footage, 1996-2002
This
subseries includes b-roll footage of exhumations, memorial ceremonies and
re-burials, political actions against amnesty for those responsible for the
killings, and gatherings of former civil patrollers. There is also footage
documenting legal proceedings against former civil patrollers involved in the
massacres. Finally, there is footage of various indigenous Maya Achí rituals
and performances. This footage was shot in the Rabinal area of Guatemala.
Abstracts are provided by WITNESS. Videos are ordered alphabetically by
title.
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Access
Restrictions
Unrestricted.
Use Restrictions
Standard
copyright restrictions apply.
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The is classified under the
following Subject Headings in the University of
Texas Libraries catalog: |
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Subjects (Persons) |
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Tecú Osorio, Jesús,
1971- |
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Subjects |
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Massacres--Guatemala--Rabinal--History--20th
century |
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Río Negro
(Rabinal, Guatemala)--History--20th century |
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Guatemala--Human
Rights |
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Places |
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Río Negro (Rabinal,
Guatemala) |
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Cite as:
[Name of video], Jesus Tecu Osorio's Footage of Rabinal, Guatemala, Human
Rights Documentation Initiative, University of Texas Libraries, the University
of Texas at Austin, [link to video if applicable].
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I. Edited Production Footage 2000-2002
(4 videos) |
| box |
folder |
| 2874 |
B00116 |
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A Massacre Remembered
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Guatemala's thirty-six year civil war claimed the lives of
more than 200,000 citizens and displaced millions more, many of them Mayan
civilians. During the war, the Guatemalan military killed, tortured, raped and
butchered hundreds of thousands of people. This WITNESS Rights Alert feature
tells the story of WITNESS partner Jesús Tecú Osorio, one of the few survivors
of the Rio Negro Massacre that took place on March 13, 1982. After witnessing
the massacre of more than one hundred children and nearly eighty women by
members of the Guatemalan army and civil patrols, Jesús and seventeen other
children were taken to work as servants in the houses of the patrollers who had
killed their families. Jesus lived in captivity for three years until he was
freed by his only surviving sister, Laura. This Rights Alert feature tells
Jesus's story and informs viewers of the movement that he has spearheaded to
acknowledge, commemorate, mourn and seek justice for the victims of this
devastating tragedy. This piece is narrated by REM musician Michael Stipe, with
music by Philip Glass. |
| box |
folder |
| 2845 |
B00070 |
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A Right To Justice. English version
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A Right to
Justice, shot by Guatemalan human rights advocate Jesus Tecú Osorio,
expands on the earlier Rights Alert "A Massacre Remembered". Following the
struggle of the indigenous Maya Achi people of Guatemala to have the truth of
the genocide there in the early 1980s revealed, it includes footage of the
recent trial of a few of the perpetrators. Detailing recent efforts to document
the atrocities, and to secure justice through the prosecution of the
masterminds of the massacres, it also includes sequences illustrating the
impunity with which some perpetrators still act. |
| box |
folder |
| 3067 |
B01508 |
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Derecho a la Justicia
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Derecho a la Justicia [English
title: A Right to Justice], shot by Guatemalan
human rights advocate, Jesús Tecú Osorio, expands on the earlier Rights Alert
"A Massacre Remembered". Following the struggle of the indigenous Maya Achi
people of Guatemala to have the truth of the genocide in the early 1980s
revealed, it includes footage of the recent trial of a few of the perpetrators.
Detailing efforts to document the atrocities, and to secure justice through the
prosecution of the masterminds of the massacres, it also includes sequences
illustrating the impunity with which some perpetrators still
act. |
| box |
folder |
| 1240 |
B00655 |
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Sr. Lucas Tecú y Mujeres Lideres de Familiares Desaparecidos
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An edited video
documenting a meeting between the Vice-Mayor of Rabinal Lucas Tecú and women
leaders with missing relatives. The video, date-stamped 14 August 2002
throughout, shows Lucas Tecú standing and speaking to a room of women and some
men. The women in the audience respond to Tecú and ask him questions. Tecú was
the commandant of the military commissioners in the early 1980s, commanding 280
members. He says that he has no knowledge of the massacres, and blames those
who have since died. He says that is was difficult to control the commissioners
and that he never used a weapon. The first woman who speaks asks him where
their family members are buried. |
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II.Series
2, Unedited Footage 1996-2002
(33 videos) |
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I. Interview Footage, 1996-2002
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| box |
folder |
| 1188 |
B00620 |
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[Chichuvipal interview]
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This is an interview with a Mayan Achi woman, in the Achi
language, which concerns the massacre in Rabinal, Baja Verapaz in 1982. Not
translated or logged. |
| box |
folder |
| 1218 |
B00641 |
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[Clip reel of raw footage/July 2002 Interview with Jesus Tecú Osorio], part 1
[Clip reel of raw footage/July 2002 Interview with Jesus Tecú Osorio], part 2
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Clip reel of various raw
footage shot by WITNESS partner Jesús Tecú Osorio. Includes footage from
rallies against amnesty for perpetrators of mass killings in Rabinal, community
memorials for victims of the massacres, and exhumations of remains from
clandestine graves. |
| box |
folder |
| 1181 |
B00616 |
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[Exhumation at Pichec / Jesus Tecu Osorio speaking / burial ceremony / inspection of clandestine gravesites at Piedra Cal and other locales]
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Footage from exhumation
conducted by the Fundación de Antropología Forense de Guatemala (FAFG),
possibly in Pichec, Rabinal, Baja Verapaz. |
| box |
folder |
| 1108 |
B00569 |
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[Exhumations in Rabinal, Guatemala part 1]
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Footage from exhumation conducted by the
Footage of an exhumation of the massacre site in Rabinal, Guatemala. Footage
includes many CUs of exhumation and memorial ceremonies with Maya Achi people
around the exhumation site. |
| box |
folder |
| 1116 |
B00571 |
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[Exhumations in Rabinal, Guatemala part 2]
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Footage from exhumation conducted by the
Footage of an exhumation of the massacre site in Rabinal, Guatemala. Footage
includes many CUs of exhumation and memorial ceremonies with Maya Achi people
around the exhumation site. |
| box |
folder |
| 1233 |
B00651 |
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[Footage selections from two gatherings of former civil patrollers of Rabinal and interview with Juan Reyes]
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Selections of footage
from the first two gatherings of former civil patrollers in Rabinal in July
2002, and from an interview with Juan Reyes, the president of the committee of
former civil patrollers in Rabinal. |
| box |
folder |
| 1104 |
B00567 |
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[Funeral rites and interviews / interview with Jesús Tecú Osorio / beginning exhumation]
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Footage date-stamped 13
March 1998 shot at a nighttime memorial commemorating the Rio Negro massacre at
the massacre site, Cumbre Pacoxom. Next, an interview with WITNESS partner and
massacre survivor Jesus Tecú Osorio. Footage date-stamped 23 March 1998 shows
another memorial with mourners. The ceremony involves the slaughter and burning
of a chicken. Footage also date-stamped 23 March 1998 shows people at a site
called Sarachl, and the preparation for an exhumation. Footage date-stamped 24
March 1998 shows Jesus Tecu Osorio and others in an office, meeting with an
unidentified man. |
| box |
folder |
| 1245 |
B00656 |
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[Interview with Carlos Chen Osorio]
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Interview with Carlos Chen Osorio about his
activities as the founder of the Association of Widows, Widowers, Orphans, and
Displaced of Rabinal Maya-Achí, including advocating for compensation and lands
for people displaced by the Chixoy dam. He talks about the obstacles they face,
and how they are also seeking justice, not vengeance, for the massacres. He
talks about the Maya-Achi museum that he and Jesús Tecú Osorio hope to open,
and his hopes for Guatemala in the future. He describes the history of land
reform and struggles that led to the massacre of indigenous communities in the
1980s. He says that Mexico is employing a similar tactic of labeling indigenous
people who are claiming their rights as "guerillas." |
| box |
folder |
| 1224 |
B00644 |
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[Interview with Jesús Tecú Osorio, April 1999]
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WITNESS interview with
Jesús Tecú Osorio, shot in April 1999. Jesus Tecu Osorio is a human rights
activist born in Río Negro, Guatemala. He is one of the few survivors of the
Río Negro massacre that took place on March 13, 1982. He works with the
Association for Widows in Rabinal, and is a 1996 recipient of the Reebok Award
for defending human rights. In his interview he describes the programs that he
has implemented in Guatemala and his views about the future of his country [not
translated]. |
| box |
folder |
| 1154 |
B00599 |
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[Interviews with Maya Achi people / Pueblo Viejo-Quixal Hydroelectric Project and Chixoy Dam / interview with Carlos Chen Osorio]
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The first part of this
video was shot on the bank of the Rio Negro near the Chixoy Dam. There is an
interview with a man from Rio Negro who now lives in Rabinal. There is another
interview with a Maya Achi woman, who is speaking in Achi (not logged). The
second part of this video is b-roll of the Pueblo Viejo-Quixal Hydroelectric
Project and Chixoy Dam. The third part of this video takes place at a memorial
site in a wooded area. There is another interview with the man in the first
part of the video (not logged). The fourth part of this video is an interview
with Carlos Chen Osorio, a Rio Negro massacre survivor and activist. The fifth
part of the video shows black and white photos of the Rio Negro from a book,
while two men talk about Rio Negro and the Maya Achi people (not logged). The
final part of this video is an interview with a man standing in front of house
talking about the housing for the relocated Rio Negro people (not
logged). |
| box |
folder |
| 1236 |
B00652 |
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[Plan de Sánchez massacre commemoration / Interview with Ex-PAC leader Juan Reyes / Nueva Esperanza workshop / INEBE Exhumation Part 1]
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Footage date-stamped 18
July 2002 documents a ceremony commemorating the Plan de Sánchez massacre,
which took place on 18 July 1982. |
| box |
folder |
| 1119 |
B00585 |
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[Rites for people killed in Rio Negro massacre (All Saints Day) / Ceremony with young girls (elección de la madrona)]
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Footage of various
events in which people pay their respects for those killed in the Rio Negro
massacre. |
| box |
folder |
| 1182 |
B01332 |
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[Testimony of former civil patrollers Victor, Sical S Miguel [?] / burial for Panacal massacre victims], part 1
[Testimony of former civil patrollers Victor, Sical S Miguel [?] / burial for Panacal massacre victims], part 2
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Testimonial interview
with Victor, a farmer and former civil
patroller. |
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II.
B-roll Footage, 1996-2002
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| box |
folder |
| 1144 |
B00589 |
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[Buying a property / opening of the Community Museum of Rabinal], part 1
[Buying a property / opening of the Community Museum of Rabinal], part 2
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Footage date-stamped 7
February 1999 shows workers celebrating the new farm bought by the foundation
that Jesús Tecú Osorio and others created in
Guatemala. |
| box |
folder |
| 1169 |
B00609 |
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[Civil Patrollers sentenced in Rio Negro case]
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Footage from the
sentencing of former civil patrollers Carlos Chen, Pedro González, and Fermín
Lajuj Xitumul for their participation in the Rio Negro
massacres. |
| box |
folder |
| 1145 |
B00592 |
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[Defendants' statements in the Rio Negro case]
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Footage from a court
appearance by Carlos Chen, Pedro Gonzalez and Fernin Lajuj, three men who were
accused of killing the parents and family of Jesús Tecú
Osorio. |
| box |
folder |
| 1108 |
B00569 |
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[Exhumations in Rabinal, Guatemala part 1]
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Footage of an exhumation of the massacre
site in Rabinal, Guatemala. Footage includes many CUs of exhumation and
memorial ceremonies with Maya Achi people around the exhumation
site. |
| box |
folder |
| 1104 |
B00567 |
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[Funeral rites and interviews / interview with Jesús Tecú Osorio / beginning exhumation]
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Footage date-stamped 13
March 1998 shot at a nighttime memorial commemorating the Rio Negro massacre at
the massacre site, Cumbre Pacoxom. Next, an interview with WITNESS partner and
massacre survivor Jesus Tecú Osorio. Footage date-stamped 23 March 1998 shows
another memorial with mourners. The ceremony involves the slaughter and burning
of a chicken. Footage also date-stamped 23 March 1998 shows people at a site
called Sarachl, and the preparation for an exhumation. Footage date-stamped 24
March 1998 shows Jesus Tecu Osorio and others in an office, meeting with an
unidentified man. |
| box |
folder |
| 1140 |
B00587 |
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[Las Flores farm/testimonies for the creation of museum to commemorate the killings in Rabinal]
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Footage date-stamped 17
September 1997 shows a farm called "Las Flores." Footage date-stamped 23
September 1997 shows a meeting between an anthropologist working in Rabinal,
some of the relatives of the victims, representatives of other organizations,
and community leaders. |
| box |
folder |
| 1152 |
B00594 |
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[Lawyer defends civil patrollers accused in Rio Negro massacre], part 1
[Lawyer defends civil patrollers accused in Rio Negro massacre], part 2
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Footage from a public
hearing in a courtroom. A lawyer gives a speech defending Carlos Chen, Pedro
González Gómez and Fermín Lajuj Xitumul, three patrollers accused of killing
two women whose bodies were exhumed from the site of the Rio Negro massacre.
The lawyer argues that there is insufficient evidence to corroborate the
survivors' testimonies. He argues that the verdict should not rely upon the
testimonies of individuals who claim to have witnessed the massacre seventeen
years earlier. Tape cuts abruptly to a different setting. There are interviews
with two men who witnessed the 1982 massacres. Tape then cuts back to
courtroom. The lawyer for the prosecution speaks (not
logged). |
| box |
folder |
| 1179 |
B00615 |
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[Maya Achi wedding]
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Footage date-stamped 18 December 1998 from a Maya Achi
wedding. |
| box |
folder |
| 1095 |
B00657 |
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[Peacful March in Rabinal/Rio Negro memorial/Event at basketball court]
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Footage from various
events, including a church service and peaceful rally by survivors and families
protesting amnesty for perpetrators of the Rio Negro massacres, shot on 29
December 1996; footage of a monument in memory of Rio Negro massacre victims;
and an event calling for the fulfillment of peace accords with the Maya Achi
people. |
| box |
folder |
| 1136 |
B00586 |
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[Petition against amnesty/Cumbre Pacoxom memorial ceremony], part 1
[Petition against amnesty/Cumbre Pacoxom memorial ceremony], part 2
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Footage from a rally in
Rabinal and of people mourning at the mass grave site at Cumbre
Pacoxom. |
| box |
folder |
| 1130 |
B00584 |
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[Presidential campaign of Arzú / Burial of bones of dead from the 1982 massacre in Plan de Sánchez / Marriage ceremony in Rabinal]
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Footage of various
events, including a presidential campaign rally, a reinterment ceremony, and a
marriage ceremony. |
| box |
folder |
| 1141 |
B00588 |
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[Procession in Santa Cruz, Guatemala]
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This video is one of Osorio's attempts to
preserve the culture of Rabinal that was almost eradicated during the massacres
of indigenous people by the military, most tragically in the
1980s. |
| box |
folder |
| 1119 |
B00585 |
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[Rites for people killed in Rio Negro massacre (All Saints Day) / Ceremony with young girls (elección de la madrona)]
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Footage of various
events in which people pay their respects for those killed in the Rio Negro
massacre. |
| box |
folder |
| 1125 |
B00580 |
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[Speaking event / Rabinal memorial ceremony / theatre works in Santa María Tzejá]
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Footage of various
events, including a conference or speaking event, a memorial ceremony, and a
theatrical performance. |
| box |
folder |
| 1192 |
B00624 |
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[Testimonies from former civil patrollers in the Rio Negro case, part 1], part 1
[Testimonies from former civil patrollers in the Rio Negro case, part 1], part 2
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Footage from the trial
of Carlos Chen, Pedro González, and Fermín Lajuj Xitumul, three civil
patrollers accused of murder as part of their participation in the 1982 Rio
Negro massacre. Footage includes testimonies by four former civil patrollers,
who were under the command of the accused men. Seated in front of the judges
and lawyers in the courtroom, the four men each answer questions about their
whereabouts and actions on March 13, 1982. The date-stamp 20 September 1998
appears briefly in the middle of the video. |
| box |
folder |
| 1198 |
B01331 |
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[Testimonies from former civil patrollers in the Rio Negro case, part 2]
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Footage from the trial
of Carlos Chen, Pedro González, and Fermín Lajuj Xitumul, three civil
patrollers accused of murder as part of their participation in the 1982 Rio
Negro massacre. Footage includes testimonies by four former civil patrollers,
who were under the command of the accused men. Seated in front of the judges
and lawyers in the courtroom, the four men each answer questions about their
whereabouts and actions on March 13, 1982. The date-stamp 20 September 1998
appears briefly in the middle of the video. |
| box |
folder |
| 1174 |
B00612 |
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[Testimony of General Benedicto Lucas Garcia at trial of former civil patrollers]
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Footage from the trial
of three Civil Defense Patrollers (PAC) -- Carlos Chen, Pedro González, and
Fermín Lajuj Xitumul. |
| box |
folder |
| 1189 |
B00622 |
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[Tour of prospective relocation site for Rio Negro residents/Religious ceremony/Rally in Panzós]
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Footage date-stamped 8
May 1997 and 9 May 1997 from a tour of farmland near Pasmolon, Alta Verapaz,
offered to the survivors of the Rio Negro massacre now living in Rabinal.
Footage date-stamped 28 May 1997 from an unidentified communal gathering
followed by a religious service. Footage date stamped 29 May 1997 CU people
watching and lining up to sign or give their thumbprint to a
petition. |
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