Remains of man exhumed 22 years after slaughter, Chimaltenango, Guatemala, Summer 2004

This photograph was taken in paraje Cambaicol Bajo, aldea Las Lomas of San Martin Jilotepeque, Chimaltenango, Guatemala during a three-month research project into local-level reconciliation processes in Guatemala. Photographed is a body of a man who was killed during the internal armed conflict and later buried in a clandestine grave. His body was exhumed by the non-governmental organization Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala (FAFG) twenty-two years after his death. In Guatemala, all exhumations are carried out by FAFG, and only take place after an individual who claims a family relation is interred there has made an official allegation of a clandestine grave. Unlike in other post-conflict nations, such as Bosnia, where exhumations are part of an officially organized process, here government involvement follows only after the family has initiated the process. Exhumations and related judicial processes were one of four types of reconciliation programs examined during the course of this research project. The others include memorialization, psycho-social intervention programs and indigenous rights, and the newly created national compensation program.