Grave Secrets

I nodded. “I spotted cranial fragments in some of the photos.”

“Age?”

“I have to check Fazekas and Kósa.”

I referred to a volume titled Forensic Fetal Osteology, the anthropologist’s bible on prenatal skeletal development. Published in Hungary in 1978 and long out of print, copies were jealously guarded by those lucky enough to possess them.

“There’s one in the collection.”

“Done with the scope?”

“Almost.” He stood. “I should finish about the time you wrap up with Nordstern.”

My eyes rolled so far back I feared they might strike my frontal lobe.

“Missed you yesterday.”

“Uh huh.”

“Señor Reyes said you’d be tied up until Saturday.”

“We have thirty minutes, sir. What can I help you with?”

I’d swapped sides of Mateo’s desk, and Nordstern now sat where I had been.

“Right.” He pulled a tiny recorder from a pocket and waggled it.

“Do you mind?”

I looked at my watch while he played with buttons.

“O.K.,” he said, leaning back. “Tell me what went on down here.”

The question surprised me.

“Didn’t you cover that with Elena?”

“I like to get different points of view.”

“It’s historic record.”

He raised shoulders, palms, and eyebrows.

“How far back do you want to go?”

He gave the same annoying shrug. O.K., asshole. Human Rights Abuses 101.

“From the sixties to the nineties, many Latin American countries were gripped by periods of violence and repression. Human rights were trampled, with most atrocities being committed by the reigning military governments.

“The early eighties saw a shift toward democracy. With that came a need to investigate human rights violations of the recent past. In some countries those investigations led to convictions. In others various amnesty proclamations allowed the guilty to skate prosecution. It became clear that outside investigators were essential if real facts were to be unearthed.”

Nordstern sat there like a student not interested in what the teacher is saying. I shifted to something more concrete.

“Argentina is a good example. When Argentina returned to democracy in eighty-three, the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons, CONADEP, determined that close to nine thousand people had been ‘disappeared’ during the previous military regime, the large majority kidnapped by security forces, taken to illegal detention centers, tortured, and killed. Bodies were either dumped from airplanes into the Argentine Sea or buried in unmarked graves.

“Judges began ordering exhumations, but the doctors placed in charge had little experience with skeletal remains and no training in archaeology. Bulldozers were used, bones were broken, lost, mixed up, and left behind. Needless to say, the identification process did not go well.”

I was providing the ultra-condensed version.

“In addition, many of these doctors had themselves been complicit in the slaughter, either by omission or commission.”

An image of Díaz flashed into my mind. Then Díaz and Dr. Lucas at the Paraíso.

“Anyway, for all these reasons, it was deemed necessary to establish a more rigorous scientific protocol and to utilize experts not subject to the influence of suspected perpetrators.”

“That’s where Clyde Snow came in.”

“Yes. In eighty-four, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, AAAS, sent a delegation, which included Clyde Snow, to Argentina. The Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, EAAF, was founded that year, and has been active ever since.”

“Not just in Argentina.”

“Hardly. The EAAF has worked with human rights organizations in Bosnia, East Timor, El Salvador, Guatemala, Paraguay, South Africa, Zimbabw—”

“Who picks up the tab?”

“Team members are paid from the EAAF’s general budget. In most of these countries human rights institutions have very limited resources.”

Knowing Mateo’s goal, I pursued the topic.

“Money is a chronic problem in human rights work. In addition to worker salaries, there are expenses for travel and local arrangements. Funding for a mission may come entirely from the EAAF, or in Guatemala, the FAFG, or from a local or international organization.”

“Let’s talk Guatemala.”

So much for the funding pitch.

“During the civil war here—which lasted from 1962 until 1996— one to two hundred thousand people were killed or ‘disappeared.’ It’s estimated that another million were displaced.”

“Most being civilians.”

“Yes. The UN Guatemalan Commission for Historical Clarification concluded that ninety percent of all human rights violations were committed by the Guatemalan army and its allied paramilitary organizations.”

“The Mayans really took it in the pants.”

The man was revolting.

“Most victims were Mayan peasants, many with no involvement in the conflict. The military swept through the countryside killing anyone they even suspected of being a guerrilla supporter. The highland provinces of El Quiché and Huehuetenango contain hundreds of unmarked graves.”

“Strictly scorched earth.”

“Yes.”

“And then they played innocent.”