This drawing from the village Santiago Atitlan represents the Chuchujil Mayas. It's a mass arrest, but a very special one since I saw it take place - even though from a distance.  
 
      It was a terrible experience. The army came, the army lead by a group of civilians - among these civilians, you have something called "Comisionados militares" ("military commissioners") - they are the eyes and the ears of the army - they are civilians trained for this, often former soldiers who now live in the village. This way they can note if somebody is saying something against the regime or if they participate directly in some acts. They note this and when they've got a large list of names, they call the army or the para-military groups for them to arrest these people, according to the notes of the commissioners - that's just disgusting... 
 
      And we've seen so many cases of sons having informed against their own fathers or brothers, that it makes me think of the methods of brainwash that the Nazis used on young Germans. This means that once they've finished the training or the brainwash, these young men will inform against their fathers, saying that they are enemies of the regime. I've seen it a lot of times.  
 
      When the sons inform against their fathers or brothers it's because they've been forced to do it. They've been forced because nobody does a thing like that without having a special reason. And the reason lies in the training, which, by the way, has been described in so many books - a training that all the young men have had. Here we talk about a brainwash so nasty that, when you read about these things, you don't even believe your own eyes.  
 
      However, it's because of the fear of the Communists, everybody had during those years, saying: If we don't stop this now, this whole country will break to pieces. That is, they say that freedom will disappear if we don't do anything now....  
 
      It's also because this job is well paid, and not only well paid, a lot of the Commissioners have a lot of privileges - only through this job of theirs. For instance they earn a lot of money, they've got a car, a lot of women, a lot of food, a job, clothes - they're part of a brotherhood - they've got something in common that you can see all through History. It's an extreme masculinity - and this brotherhood that exists between soldiers, makes them do anything to protect it....  
 
      But it's also a matter of their power and the dignity of a corps of professional agents. And I've seen it a thousand times - and you can also see it on this drawing - it shows you what you have to know to be able to understand how these mass arrests work.  
 
      And it's very obvious that these Commissioners often inform against people, they either envy or don't like - or for some other reason - this way, they're in charge.  
 
      One of my best friends got killed, shot in the back by one of these Commissioners - only because he didn't want to play cards....  
 
      One of the ways of recruiting these young men in the street is by recruiting them for the army. You can find a lot of reports that state this - I've also used one of them in my books. Military training is the worst nightmare of them all - often soldiers get killed. If you don't agree with this kind of training, you'll just disappear.  
 
      You also have to remember that a lot of these young men picked out in the street are illiterates who don't know anything about the world. They're not very intelligent, often hungry, they're young men given the opportunity to participate in a brotherhood, they'll get food and clothes - and little by little they're trained like every other soldier - and the day they have their first mission and the first time they kill a human being, they're trapped...  
 
      What happens next - which is also devilish - is that they're often placed in their own village - this meaning that if you come from QuichÈ, they'll plant you there, and you'll be forced to suppress your own people... Once the training ends, this young man will return to his village, however, we often see that they don't want him there - you find a lot of examples of young men being thrown out of their own village.  
 
      In order to survive, they often return to something, they know, where they'll also find safety and brotherhood, that is the army - and they stay there - they can never escape.  
 
      You have to remember that not only did they kill some of their own during the training they were also excluded. And when you're excluded from your village, you think: Well, maybe there's something about it - and you can't get out of it - we also saw this phenomenon in Denmark during the 2nd World War, where a lot of Danes informed against other Danes for a lot of reasons, however mostly because they believed that the Germans were superior.  
 
 
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