"International Encounter for Memory and Reparation. Ayacucho."

On July 16, the day of commemoration and memory for victims of violence and State terrorism in Peru, we went to the La Hoyada sector, at the Los Cabitos military base: In the military barracks "Los Cabitos," La Hoyada sector, "more than fifty common graves were found, recovering 109 individuals, 54 complete bodies and 55 incomplete ones. Legal Medicine determined that the bodies found and traces of their clothing were those of minors and children, with bullet holes in their skulls." An immense cross made of white-painted cement, dedicated to the hundreds of disappeared, tortured, and incinerated bodies, brought together the various national and international delegations under a radiant sun, amid Andean music and corn chicha. The parish priest of La Hoyada invoked God and blessed the cross; the victims' names were read aloud as a sign that they live on in the people. The ritual with funeral songs in Quechua sung by mothers and grandmothers, Pacha Mama poured at the foot of the cross, many lights lit, red carnations buried in the mother earth, and words of memory, commitment, and challenges. The Mayor pledged to obtain the property titles for these lands in order to erect the SANCTUARY OF MEMORY. We tread the ground of martyrs, and as the indigenous people of Colombia say: "This is our soil, here we remain." In gratitude, we dedicate to the Peruvian people the poem of Memory on this Day of Commemoration SO THAT IT NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN!