WEBVTT

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In July 1980,

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a civilian government took power in
Peru after 12 years of military rule.

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Yet from its inception, the New Democracy face the
challenge of a growing insurgency in the Andes,

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a poor area traditionally isolated and
neglected by the central government.

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[sil.]

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On January 29th 1983, the remote war violently
burst on to the nation’s television screens

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as the mutilated bodies
of a Peruvian journalists

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were dug for shallow graves in the
Andean village of Uchurracay.

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The identity of the assassins

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became a subject of heated debate and
the massacre still haunts Peru today,

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a symbol of the violent
war sweeping the Andes.

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[music]

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The centre of this war is the countryside
in the Department of Ayacucho.

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An area habited mostly by Quechua Indians.
The regions in demick(ph) poverty

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helped fuel the growth of the insurgent movement
which employs unusually violent tactics

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in its quest for power.

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[music]

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In December 1982,

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unable to contain the spread of the insurgency,
the civilian government called in the military.

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It was given political as
well as military control.

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In its combat against the Maoist guerrilla
group, the Shining Path, the army relies on

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specially trained counterinsurgency
units, the Sinchis and the Marines.

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Their introduction to the region was
followed by thousands of unresolved cases of

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death and disappearances.

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The elite counterinsurgency forces are
undergoing rigorous commando training,

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an unconventional warfare.

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[sil.]

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The military is facing one
of the most obscure shadowy

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and brutal guerrilla groups in
the world, the Shining Path.

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The 2,000 to 3,000 strong movement is
linked to many murders in the area.

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In this rare footage a guerrilla unit is on route to
execute a public official. One of the hundreds of

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such incidents since their arms
struggle was launched in 1980.

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[non-English narration]

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Inside prison, these women maintained the group’s rigid
discipline and its devout loyalty to their leader,

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Compañero Gonzalo(ph). The
military has been largely unable

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to penetrate the movement’s hermetic structure
and instead concentrates its efforts against

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the Shining Path’s suspected civilian base.

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[sil.]

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[music]

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A journalists went to find the truth about
this war but instead became its victims.

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[music]

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Under pressure from the journalist
families and the public,

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a presidential commission was formed. It
concluded that the journalists were murdered

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by local peasants who mistook them for
guerrillas. This trial which followed

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attempted to present new evidence
contradicting the commission’s findings.

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Yet, it faced tremendous odds when
charges were filed against 17 peasants,

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only 3 could be found. Other key witnesses
were either killed or disappeared.

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[sil.]

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Asko Retto, Willy’s father and a photojournalist
for over 25 years was sent to cover the trial of

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his son’s accused murderers.

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The journalists went to investigate
the murder of seven young men

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in the remote village of Mai Chau. And the reports that the
military was organizing peasants into paramilitary groups,

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the military had proudly announced
that the villagers had murdered

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seven members of the Shining Path, thus,
proving that the guerrillas were finally

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losing the support of the population.

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[music]

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In Ayacucho, the journalists stayed at

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the hostile Santa Rosa, meeting place of most
local journalists. The group set out for Huaychao

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at six am leaving in a hired taxi.

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Was the military aware of their trip?
The president’s commission

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denied the possibility. Yet, during the
trial the area commander admitted that

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the military was tipped off
on the journalist’s plans.

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[music]

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As they climbed high into the mountains,
they passed the prompter of Canoe

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site of the Last Battle for the liberation
of Latin America from Spanish world.

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[music]

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At 9am, they stopped in the hamlet of Pica

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to eat breakfast in the
home of a peasant woman.

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[non-English narration]

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[sil.]

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When we visited the Hamlet, the woman had
disappeared and the houses were all abandoned.

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[sil.]

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It was fear that drove the residents of
Pica and other Andean communities to Lima

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creating a large internal refugee problem.
People fled their homes and are now living in

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makeshift camps without proper housing,
food, or any public assistance.

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[music]

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[music]

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Leaving the hamlet of Pica, their
car climb the winding road higher

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into the mountains. The landscape
becomes more desolate,

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isolated peasant huts. No
trees grow in these heights.

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[music]

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By late morning they reached the point
where they began their track by foot

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which would lead them to
Uchurracay and then to Huaychao.

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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What happened to the
journalists from this point on

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as well as to the now abandoned communities they
passed on the way may never be fully known.

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Nobody would dare travel this trail again.

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Willys’ last photos in his camera found

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months after the massacre contradicted
some of the official findings.

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The journalists had a white flag and not a red
one as the military and the peseants claimed.

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They can be seen conversing with the
peasants. Thus, they could not have been

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mistaken for guerrillas. Yet, the pictures
reveal the tension of the encounter.

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The journalists speak with
their hands up or kneeling.

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The peasants in the photos could clarify it all
but they were either killed or disappeared.

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[sil.]

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Beyond the political debate, many disturbing questions
still remain. The peasants in the village of

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(inaudible)for example are
members of (inaudible)

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a paramilitary group for
self-defense against the guerrillas

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armed with spears, knives, traditional slings
and aided by the women’s wails of alarm.

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The peasants are supposed to kill
foreigners who approach their village.

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The peasants of Uchuraccay told the
commission they were ordered to do the same

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but what the military describes then as the
peasants own initiative is today an official policy

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in the entire emergency zone.

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Although, some of the peasants are volunteers, it
seems that the majority have been coerced into

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joining the paramilitary organization.

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[non-English narration]

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In this rare picture taken in 1982, the judge
claims that the mustached man leading the villagers

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is a soldier disguised as a peasant.
Indians do not grow mustaches.

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If this is true, where their disguised
soldiers in Uchurracay during the massacre?

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The surviving peasants could provide
the answers but they claim ignorance.

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The trial attempted to reconstruct the
journalists last hours in the Highlands.

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Yet, the process suffered repeated
delays as the anxious families

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gathered for the final session,
the prosecutor failed to appear.

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He had gone to Lima to consult with his superiors.
The angry families besieged the bewildered judge.

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They began to fear a coverup.

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Gilma and Victor, the father of Jorge
Luis Mendibil wanted to disrupt

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the court’s other proceedings
but were stopped by Oscar.

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[sil.]

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[non-English narration]

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That the district attorney offers no help.

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The prosecutor is entitled to eight days of
leave he says and only four have passed.

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[sil.]

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Outside the district attorney’s office, the families are reminded
that their frustration is shared by thousands Indian women

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whose relatives were kidnapped or
disappeared are lost an official paperwork.

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Only an Ayacucho did Gilma
and Gloria become aware of

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the unexpected twist of fate that tied them to the hundreds
of people whose relatives have been detained and disappeared.

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Left without any source of
income these women line up

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for an emergency food supply.

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[non-English narration]

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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Acting on a tip from a local resident,

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we accompanied Oscar and Lucho
Morales, a local journalist

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to the Ayacucho garbage dump, Padakuti(ph).
For the past two years,

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it has been a disposal place for the bodies of
the disappeared. There were no bodies this time.

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A local peasant told us they
were taken two days ago.

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Otherwise, the pigs would have eaten them.

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Since last summer, over 20
clandestine graves have been dug out

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containing the remains of dozens of disappeared.
Some were identified by their families

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as those of their missing relatives
who were kidnapped by the military.

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We accompanied Oscar Retto and
other Peruvian journalists

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to a newly found mass grave near Juanda.

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Through his photographs, Oscar has been
struggling to come to grips with the world

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where his son’s death is only one of the many
thousands that will never be completely resolved

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or ever brought to justice.

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The digging could not be completed.

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We came under fire. The military
said, it was a guerrilla unit.

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The journalists claimed it was the military
scaring us away. Indeed, it seems unlikely

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for the Shining Path to attack during
the day in a heavily militarized zone.

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[sil.]

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Our car which was parked below the hill was
obviously destroyed by the military’s fire.

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Yet, as in the case of the journalists murder,
it is the final proof which is missing.

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[sil.]

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Two years have passed

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since the chilly morning in January 1983,

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when the A journalists set out on their last
road. Since then, more than 4,000 people

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have died or disappeared in the city whose
name in quechua means corner of death.

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It is a gray morning in March 1985,

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the day the verdict was to be given.

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[sil.]

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The verdict was going to implicate
the military in the massacre.

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These delays argued the families on an attempt
by the authorities to stop the trial.

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The tension of the last weeks is evident.
Gloria Mendivil is attacking Gilma

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for wasting her trip to Lima
since the attorney general,

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the only one who could reverse the
course of the trial refused to see her.

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[sil.]

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For the last six months, Gilma has asked Willy
to give her strength to withstand it all.

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Through the trial she hoped to get
closer to him in his last moments.

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Yet, by now, his death seems as
remote and mysterious as ever.

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[sil.]

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Attacked by much of the Peruvian
press, Judge, Ventura Huayhua

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sits alone in his room determined to prove
the military’s complicity in the massacre.

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[non-English narration]

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[non-English narration]

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Lima, March 1985, six months after the trial
began, the prosecutor drops the charges

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against the accused and thus the
legal process is at a stalemate.

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Gilma is back where she started two
years ago appealing to the press

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and the Palace of Congress.

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[sil.]

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Often in the last two years, her thoughts were taking
her to the wind swept mountains of Unchuraccay.

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Willy was sending them a message
that they cannot decode.

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Why did he photograph this wall of stones?
What is the fuzzy shape on the right

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or the shadow in the last picture.

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Willy was trying to tell them about his
last moments and they cannot understand.

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[music]

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This woman has been
tortured by the ambiguity

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surrounding her son’s murder and the
inability to bring his assassins to justice.

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[music]

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In Ayacucho’s cemetery, a whole
section is left for the graves of

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disappeared people whose
bodies were identified.

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[music]

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This man’s son was kidnapped
from home at 1 AM.

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Three months later, he identified
his body in a mass grave only by

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a childhood scar on his leg.

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[music]

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These women have been overwhelmed

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by the sudden disappearance of
their loved ones leaving no trace.

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In between these three stories

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lies the drama of a country caught
in the web of fear and ambiguities.

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Governments will rise and fall in Peru,

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the killings might end one day. But
the graves will stay there forever

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etched in the memory of a nation.

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[music]