An ex-guerrillero tells his story

At last week’s conference, Ronaldo came to speak to us about his life and experiences as a guerrillero during the civil war (1960-1996).

In Guatemala, guerrilla groups began to emerge in the 1960s in response to the increasing repression of the military regimes, rampant discrimination, inequality, unequal distribution of land, and total neglect of the rural and indigenous communities.

Completely unfathomable: During the height of the repression, between 1978 and 1988, more than 600 communities were completely erased off the map. To this day, more than 10 years since the war ended, secret cemeteries are still being found and undergoing the process of exhumation.

At the age of eight, Ronaldo fled to Mexico with his family. His father was kidnapped and tortured, simply for being a leader in the community and speaking out against social injustices. His father survived and is still alive today.

Ronaldo, very demure and soft-spoken, joined the guerrillas when he was just 20 years old and was an active combatant for five years. He recounted the harsh living conditions they endured during their struggle. They slept on a tarp on the ground with just one thin blanket to cover them. Everyday they walked for 8 to 12 hours loaded with heavy backpacks, the men usually carrying 100 lbs and the women 50 lbs. For hours on end they would climb volcanoes with barely anything in their stomachs. Many days they did not even eat and would hike for hours in the pouring rain and slept in the same soaking clothes. And these were the “good times,” when they were not in combat.

During times of combat, they would walk at night, all night from about 7 pm until 3 am and would sleep two or three hours, with their only nourishment being mostly rice once a day. Sometimes Ronaldo would spend days with out eating. It seems that today he can’t believe it either, but he says that during combat, you didn’t even think about food. There was no compensation for their sacrifice, what kept them strong was the abundance of solidarity and social conscience.

It blew my mind away just hearing this snippet of his life and can’t even imagine all the horrific details, not only of his personal experiences, but also that of the hundreds of thousands of victims, that he probably left out since we only had about one hour. It made me reconsider all my ridiculous ranting from last week because we spent three days of non-stop rain here in Xela. Yeah, it was cold, dark, gloomy, damp and just plain old nasty, but at least I knew I could eat whenever and whatever I wanted, take hot showers, sleep under two blankets and wake up the next morning safe and sound.