RETABLO. MASS GRAVE IN CHUSCHIHUAYCCO

Grave in Chuschihuaycco Year: 2007 Dimensions: Open: 29.5 x 67.5 x 14 cm / 29.5 x 34 x 14 cm The community members of Chungui told Edilberto Jiménez how most detainees held by the military or sinchis ended up in Chuschihuayco. An area where detainees were murdered, tortured, and buried. They called it "the cemetery of the tucos" ("tucos" = terrorists). In that place, murders, torture, and abuses were committed against men and women of all ages. It was not one large grave, but rather holes were dug to throw in the corpses resulting from each detention. The holes were dug by civilians, many of whom ended up as corpses in the very holes they had dug. This is what is reflected in this retablo, whose exterior again has no colors or figures. The box opens and on its doors we can read testimonies headed by words in Quechua written in red ink resembling blood. We see a scene in which people are being led bound toward the graves where they will be killed. Two civilians carry a shovel and look toward the two holes where corpses already lie, and in front of which more people are being killed. In the middle, the soldiers in their uniforms and with their weapons are in an aggressive stance; beneath their boots the ground has a cut marking an already-covered grave, full of corpses.