“Passengers aboard the TACA 911 flight bound for Costa Rica described Gonzales as not having the beard and mustache that he used to have and that he no doubt shaved off in order to go unnoticed. They also reported that, when he went through the boarding gate, the former official carried a baby, only a few months old, in his arms. His wife and other children, aged nine and four, followed him. Gonzales and his family were picked up in San José by a private tourist service (although they had no reservations on the TACA flight that they took) and they did not say where they were going. Asked whether he left Guatemala out of fear, the former police chief shook his head and continued walking. Pro-justice advocacy groups of course lamented that the former official left the country before clarifying the involvement of the police group under his charge in the crime against the burned Salvadorans. They also expressed their surprise that no judge with authority had issued a travel restriction against Gonzales in the midst of the current scandal.”

Evening.

A bit bored at first and then with surprise, I read an email from Tracy Veal, whom I have not seen in several years, and who now lives in New York. It contains links to two press articles: one about the recent police-related events that have put Guatemala back in the pages of the New York Times, another from the Guardian Weekly about the Archive.

The Guardian: “The Archive sits in a former police base in Guatemala City, ringed by razor wire and a 24-hour armed guard. We were allowed access on condition we did not identify any of the 100 investigators working here. . . . The person in overall charge of the Ombudsman’s inquiry says there is psychological pressure on these workers, who know their lives may be at risk due to the political sensitivity of their work. He has received numerous death threats. There are some extremely ‘unhappy people’ in the higher echelons of government and the army—he says. And people still go missing here in Guatemala.”

I imagine the “unhappy people” referred to in the article are wishing that the San Antonio sinkhole would somehow swallow the Archive.

Fourth Notebook: Red and Blue Stripes on a White Background

Fourth Notebook: Red and Blue Stripes on a White Background

Nighttime.

Slightly disappointed: Benedicto did not call me, nor did the chief.

I return to the General Archive of Central America. They give me the thesis: History of the National Police of Guatemala, 1881–1997 (University of San Carlos, 2004), by one José Adolfo C. Cruz. This revives me—before I start reading.

I browse the thesis: big disappointment. Was this done by the son of a policeman?—that is the question this sleepy reader asks himself.

The bibliography does not include any of the thirty-plus volumes of Yearly Reports by the National Police, nor any issues of the famous Police Gazette.