![]() The events of that day launched Cristales on a dark odyssey that at times defies description: a long, meandering quest for justice that brought him to a secret life in Canada and back to Guatemala again - a lifelong pursuit that is now at risk of unravelling. Violence underpinned their relationship, and it was in fact war that first joined their fates back in 1982, with Lopez, a soldier in the elite Kaibiles unit of the Guatemalan army and Cristales a boy who had just seen his family for the last time. When Santos Lopez Alonzo adopted him, Ramiro Cristales was all of five years old, a newly orphaned boy with brilliant green eyes and a will to survive. ![]() To Cristales’s dismay, he also insisted on the boy calling him Dad. The man Cristales says had attacked him that night in a drunken rage was forcing him to work at the family farm in rural Guatemala, insisting he put in 17-hour days - and not a minute less. Both missed him.Ĭristales remembers he was about 14, overworked, underfed and painfully thin - and all he wanted when he arrived home a little earlier than usual that night was something to eat. As he sprinted away screaming, he heard two gunshots follow. ![]() Ramiro Cristales felt a sharp pain as the machete sliced through his fingers, a cut that was meant for his neck but still drew a mess of blood. Warning: This story contains disturbing content. ![]()
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