Community members from Estrella Polar and Covadonga hamlets hold a vigil for 77 war victims killed during the Covadonga massacre by the Guatemalan armed  forces on March 29, 1982, during the de facto government of General Efrain Rios Montt. Estrella Polar, Chajul. Nov. 2014.

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The Ixil, Life After Genocide:

The Ixil Mayan region, comprised of the municipalities of Nebaj, Chajul and Cotzal, suffered the most punishing repression by Guatemalan State forces during an open counterinsurgency campaign in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Aimed at the local population in order to cut the supply to the growing guerrilla forces, the Army's scorched earth campaigns razed dozens of villages and killed thousands of civilians. 

On May 10, 2013, former de facto head of state Efraín Ríos Montt was sentenced to 80 years in prison for genocide and crimes against humanity for the systematic killing of 1,771 Ixil Mayan people in 1982 and 1983. Even though the sentence was annulled a few days later, it ratified the heinous crimes perpetuated against the Ixil Mayan population. 

Three decades later, the survivors continue to search for their lost loved ones hoping to close the torturous cycles of uncertainty. 

Ixil Region, Quiché, Guatemala. 2013-2014.

Local Ixil Mayan people watch as members of the Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala (FAFG) carry an exhumation at the former military garrison of Cotzal. Xolosinay, San Juan Cotzal. Nov. 2014.

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The exhumation at the former military garrison of Cotzal, which took place from August 28th until November 8th, 2014, rendered the skeletal remains of 74 wartime victims from 24 different graves. Many of the remains where bound and tied displaying signs of torture and violence. Xolosinay, San Juan Cotzal. Nov. 2014.

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In 1983, Francisco Lopez Velasquez, 62, was abducted by the Army and left for dead in a mound of bodies near Chichicastenango. He managed to join the Communities of Population in Resistance (CPR) at Caba, one of many clandestine communities in the high mountain peaks or deep jungles where civilians hid from the State repression. After 15 years at Caba, he returned to Tzalbal in 1998. Tzalbal was established as a Model Village in early 1984 by the Guatemalan Army as part of a counterinsurgency effort to resettle and control the local Ixil Mayan population. Tzalbal, Nebaj. June 2013.

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Ixil Mayan elders play music as they prepare to transport the remains of 77 war victims to Estrella Polar and Covadonga hamlets for burial. Nebaj, Nov. 2014.

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Panorama of the town of Nebaj. June 2013.

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Candlelight vigil honoring the 77 war victims from the Covadonga massacre the evening before the mass burial. Estrella Polar, Chajul. Nov. 2014.

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Locals watch as forensic anthropologists arrange the coffins with some of the 77 war victims from the Covadonga massacre the evening before the mass burial. Estrella Polar, Chajul. Nov. 2014.

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Ixil Mayan massacre survivor and community organizer Nicolas Corio plays the violin during the vigil honoring the 77 war victims from the Covadonga massacre the evening before the mass burial. Estrella Polar, Chajul. Nov. 2014.

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Community members from Estrella Polar and Covadonga hamlets carry the coffins of 77 war victims from the Covadonga massacre as they head to the cemetery for a mass burial. Estrella Polar, Chajul. Nov. 2014.

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Domingo Rodriguez Rivera, 55, takes a lunch break during the exhumation at the former military garrison of Cotzal. Rodriguez Rivera volunteered as a digger in hope of finding relatives disappeared during the war. The remains of Rodriguez Rivera's brother Andres, disappeared in January 1982 at the age of 17, were found and identified through personal objects in the pants' pocket. He still hopes to find and identify his father Juan Rodriguez Torres. Xolosinay, San Juan Cotzal. Nov. 2014.

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Community members from Estrella Polar and Covadonga insert coffins holding the human remains of 77 war victims into niches at a specially made columbarium at the Estrella Polar cemetery. Nov. 2014.

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Ixil Mayan men and women eat a snack as they wait their turn to provide their DNA sample to members of the Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala (FAFG) in an effort to identify the wartime disappeared. As of November 2014, the FAFG has positively identified the human remains of 77 war victims from the Ixil region via DNA. Nebaj. Nov. 2014.

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Diego Perez Aguilar, 14, Ixil Mayan boy from Cotzal, flies a kite over a field dotted with numerous mass graves and ditches. Xolosinay, San Juan Cotzal. Nov. 2014.

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