It would be difficult for the contrast to be more stark between the high-rise, well-funded CIEN with its abstract analyses, and FAMDEGUA. The room is small and spare, and a circle of perhaps a hundred pictures of loved ones "disappeared" during The Violence face us from the walls. Some are serious, some smiling, some fuzzy blow-ups from snapshots, some professional photos of well-known activists. All are now presumed dead.
Ester Herrarte and Aura Elena Farfan talk to us about attempts to come to terms with the past, seek justice, and deal with a present that includes harassment, intimidation, and sometimes violence against human rights workers. We watch a video dealing with the exhumation of clandestine graves, and discuss the effects that fear and corruption have on efforts to shed light on the past. We leave with a new understanding of what the past thirty years have meant for this country.