Perquin

One of the places Jonathan and I visited was Perquin, which is in the north of the country and thus more mountainous and much cooler than my site. In addition to being very scenic, it was also the capital of the rebel forces during the civil war. We went on a very interesting tour of the area with Serafin, a tour guide and former guerrilla. Above are pictures of us hiking and then later at the museum, where you can see a picture of Jonathan with Serafin in front of several American-made planes that were brought down by the rebels. The next picture is of the rocket launchers that helped bring down those planes, some of which, Serafin said, where sold to the rebels by the right-wing Contras in Nicaragua who were tempted by the money the could make at the end of their own civil war.

Serafin himself was quite the interesting person. He joined the guerrilla forces at the young age of 10 (!) and was trained and schooled by them through his adolescence. When the war was over, he took advantage of a re-education program and went to university to study ecology. He said the study of plants and ecosystems was easy for him after so many years of living in the forests. He now works with the local tourism board to manage a protected area near Perquin and gives tours in his free time.

It was interesting to hear Serafin's opinions and experiences of the war, as they were quite different from what I have heard before. My town in Cabañas was also very affected by the war, but most of guerrillas who fought here were from other parts of the country (notably the department of Morazan, where Perquin is). The people here suffered greatly at the hands of the guerrilla fighters and as such generally tend to see them in a negative light (hence my town's allegiance with ARENA, the right wing party). In fact, when I came here, I was surprised to hear such positive perspectives of the military during the war, as most of what I had heard and read about before was the horrible massacres and murders committed by the army during. Though I definitely do not feel comfortable making assessments on who carries the most blame (especially as a neutral Peace Corps Volunteer), I think it's important to remember that both sides killed innocent people and share responsibility for the horrors committed in this country.