Combat in the Reservation II

Testimony by José Chingal - Head of the Magüi Reservation Council

Fotos - Daisuke Shibata

The combat started before noon. I was with my wife near the pond where we grow fish. The guerrilla sent 4 bombs flying over the valley to where we are from the other side of the mountain.  The army is near here, that's why the guerrilla is firing in our direction.

José Chingal

One bomb landed only 100 meters from our house. The house shook. After that they started shooting. The shootout lasted a long time, about two and a half hours. After this the shots became more spaced out. Finally it stopped after three hours. My granddaughter was inside the house, drawing, when it happened. She was in shock. 

We were two families in the house, ours and a mother with her four children. The ten of us decided to go out to get away from the danger. The other family had come to gather "chiro" (small bananas). When things calmed down we went to the school, which is our evacuation site. The other family left their chiros behind, carrying them would have made our exit harder. 

Chiros

I don't know how long we will be staying at the school. lt's been 20 days since the army arrived and tension with the guerrilla started. 

Five more bombs fell near our house yesterday. I don't know if anyone died or was hurt. Usually when this happens helicopters fly in but this time they didn't come, so maybe no one was injured. We don't know what is going to happen now.