On Saturday, 21st May, 1988, the Guatemalan army, assisted by several NATO members, carried out a massacre in the village of Chiul, Cunén, Quiché, in which they kidnapped hundreds of Ajq’ijab’, historically the day keepers of the Mayan people, misnamed ´Mayan priests´. 116 boys and girls were also kidnapped and taken to the military base where the soldiers tortured their prisoners and raped the women. The soldiers selected three pregnant young women who they raped and ripping open their wombs with machetes. They stamped on each sac and decapitated the screaming women. The 116 girls and boys were also tortured with blackberry branches, abused and thrown into a well filled with water and the faeces of the soldiers. Several hours later, the soldiers reappeared only to urinate on the children, to cries of “Glory to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” and “Ave Maria”. Little by little the children suffocated and drowned. That day 115 boys and girls died. Only one child managed to survive. After four nights and five days in the well, he was rescued by a woman.

​This surviving child is the Mayan philosopher, Arnulfo Oxlaj.