Bill Barreto

GUATEMALA CITY – The search for remains from indigenous children who were believed to have been murdered and buried secretly at a former military base during the civil war of the 1980s has been suspended due insecurity.

Exhumations in Chiul (120 miles (220 km) away from Guatemala City were due to start on Tuesday morning. However, they were halted after residents protested and refused to give an explanation.

Diego Rivera (leader of ASOMOVIDNQ victim’s association) stated that there is not a new date for exhumations because of security.

In an interview, he stated to Reuters that there was a lack of coordination between the authorities which prevented the excavations from proceeding.

Although residents didn’t explain their opposition to the exhumations of bodies, Arnulfo Oxlaj (one of the victims of the massacre) said Tuesday that some of those opposed the searches were ex-members of the country’s armed forces. This force has been accused in the execution of the massacre.

Reuters couldn’t independently confirm these allegations.

One of the many massacres that occurred during civil war against Mayan communities was the May 21 massacre in remote Chiul.

Witnesses report that military personnel took hundreds of people to the military garrison where they split the families apart.

Oxlaj claims that 116 children aged between 2 and 15 years were tortured, and then they were thrown in a nearby well, where they drowned.

The number of deaths and the motivations of these killings are not documented. Guatemalan soldiers were accused of conducting genocide campaigns against indigenous populations during the conflict.