As I drove past the Mexican border shack, I looked nervously for any signs that the drunken police chief had woken up. When I didn't see any signs of life, I speeded toward the Guatamalan border post about 400 ft. away, scared to death that maybe all of a sudden the drunk would come staggering outside, shooting at my car as I passed by. This would arouse the Guatamalen soldiers also and they would start doing the same!. Nothing would have surprised me at that point. The tires flung the dry gravel in the driveway everywhere as I accelerated to get past the border post quickly before I was seen. I prayed that the drunken Mexican police chief wouldn't wake up and see me as I passed by. I was in the No-Mans Land now, maybe I was safe. Maybe I could get everything over with quickly and he wouldn't even know where I had gone. As I approached the Guatemalan border post, I thought to myself, " I'll bet this is the way it's going to be the rest of the trip. Seems like the farther south I go, the more uncivilized it gets. I started asking myself a lot of questions... I wonder if it gets even worse? What would I do if things really got worse and I had to do something drastic in order to get out of a dangerous situation. Was I willing to take the risk? Was it all worth it just for the adventure of seeing what these countries were like? Was I going to turn into a fugitive from the law for no fault of my own? Who would believe me if I told them all this? 

The excitement and adventure of it all pushed me on a little more. As I neared the Guatemalan shack, I noticed several skinny young boys outside. They all looked like Indian children, dressed in what looked like legitimate army uniforms. It began to look as if the Guatemalans allowed children to join the Army. Later, I realized they were in fact, really adults, just extremely little ones. Everything looked fairly quiet and orderly otherwise, so I decided to enter. I parked my car close to the doorway of the border shack and walked toward it hesitatingly. Somebody was coming out of the shack just as I started to enter so I grabbed the door as he came out and walked in nervously, thinking to myself, "This is my last chance to just forget about this whole trip and return. I've seen enough anyway. If something goes wrong, I just don't know how far I'm willing to go before I feel like taking things into my own hands. 

I had seen several of the pint sized toy soldiers outside and there were 2 more standing inside. They were all armed with what looked like, due to their ridiculous stature, huge M16's and those folding type briefcase machine guns. There was a young Guatamalean soldier, about 20 years old, apparently in command of the post, sitting behind a desk. He looked like a young boy who had put on his father's uniform, pretending to be a real soldier. His scrawny, girlish build, no more than 120 lbs at the most, made me feel like laughing in his face. He looked to me like he had never done any hard work or exercise in his entire life! What a miserable excuse for a soldier! But I didn't. I was on his playing field now and he had all the odds. Besides, I wasn't here to look for trouble, and maybe he would turn out to be a decent sort of guy and everything would work out smoothly. I only wanted to get through the border and be on my way as fast as possible. I didn't want any complications. My Spanish was almost as bad as the English of some of my former college professors, so I didn't want to get involved in any complicated discussions or explanations. I had already seen over at the Mexican post that the government officials down here seemed to be able to do anything they wished with no concern or conscience whatsoever. I'm beginning to see some kind of a general 

The soldier in charge was talking to a neatly dressed, middle-aged Guatamalan and his wife who stood a short distance from her husband, nearer the door. I stood back a little so they could finish talking, trying to be polite and hoping that they would finish their business quickly so I could get back on the road. I couldn't understand everything at first but I noticed that the businessman was getting extremely nervous and seemed to be frightened from something that the soldier had just said to him. When I had first walked in, he had acted normal. I quickly tried to assess the situation because it was apparent that I had walked in at an inconvenient and somewhat embarrassing moment for the soldier behind the desk. He seemed to be regretting the inappropriate timing with which I had entered his office but decided that he had to continue anyway. I assumed that the nervously fidgiting man was a small town businessman from his appearance and dress. He was about 50 years old, somewhat stocky build but not fat, and his wife about 45 maybe and somewhat heavy set and seemed to be a very nice person. He was dressed informally but nicely and apparently was not a poor campesino. His neat white shirt, which had seemed to be dry when I first walked in, quickly became completely soaked with perspiration as the conversation continued. He soon looked as though someone had poured water over him. His tan but reddened face became covered with large beads of sweat which grew rapidly and rolled down his forehead. His voice faltered when he tried to speak and he wrung his hands nervously trying to stop his trembling which now was becoming uncontrollable and noticeable to everyone in the room and which intensified the anguish on the face of his wife. He was becoming overwhelmed with his emotions and sounded like he couldn't think of anything worthwhile to say to this now obviously miserable and disgusting excuse for a man who was in command His wife paced anxiously near the wall of the small room, wearing a nice but homely dress. I looked toward her and there were huge tears streaming heavily from her swollen eyes, a look of absolute confusion and desperation on her face, looking first at one and then another person in the room, beggingly, pleadingly, as though hoping that any one of us would suddenly say something, anything that would alleviate her anguish. It was obvious that the woman loved her husband very much. She was horrified over whatever she had heard the soldier say to her husband. She realized that it might probably be a question of life and death and seemed to think that she too was possibly in danger, simply for being a witness to it all. The other soldiers stood by with expressions of moronic oblivion and detachment on their faces, which were probably not particular only to this situation and this moment. They showed no emotion or interest whatsoever in what was taking place or in the terrifying anguish of the couple in front of them faced with this terrible and stupid crisis in their lives. The Nazis had probably acted in the same way with the Jews. They appeared to be the same kind of men. Excellent soldiers, stupid but obedient. 

I quickly began to feel just how dramatic and frightening the situation really was, and how incredibly stupid and inhuman these soldiers were. Their Pagan ancestry was still intact after hundreds of years. Except their Paganism could no longer be excused. The businessman, as I could see it, was probably fighting for his life, or at least his freedom, and his wife also perceived the seriousness of the situation, and the danger of it all, even her life was in danger it seemed. It seemed to be a potentially explosive situation. I tried to quickly assess the overall situation to try to figure out what was about to happen. Would the man try to escape? Not with his wife there, or would 

The man's wife cried and trembled all over, histerically. Her husband's voice trembled and he stuttered as he said, "But you don't even have my second last name. There are several men in my town with the same first name and last name! It's a common name there! How can you arrest me without even having the complete name of the man you are looking for? What have I done wrong? 

The idiot behind the desk leaned forward against the desk and put his left elbow on it and held up his hand. He had several names scrawled on the palm of his left hand with a ball point pen, smeared and hardly legible at all. I was doubtful of whether he could actually read even though he had probably tried hard to learn to. Then he replied, in a provoking tone of voice which showed his complete lack of concern or interest in the matter and which suddenly gave me a desire to drive my fist through his skull, "What can I do? I have orders to detain anyone whose name is on this list. I'm just doing my job. (Man, where have I heard that before?) 

I knew that these were the man's final words, the pathetically unjust end of his futile struggle. There was no time left. The moron behind the desk was becoming impatient and wanted to get on to more important things, like the prostitute hanging around near the door now who kept making stupid little flirtations which she must have thought were extemely sexy. The businessman clearly showed that he thought that I was his last hope for being saved. He knew that by daring to say these things to me, in front of the officer, that he was probably going to anger the soldiers even more, but it was his only chance to have some influence on the outcome or at least for other people to know about what happened here. Maybe he hoped that somehow the soldier would become worried that he would get into some kind of trouble if the American Embassy or newspaper reporters investigated the matter and it became public knowledge. Maybe even his superiors would get angry with him for having been so stupid as to let what happened here become known. He seemed to understand and accept my understandable desire to not become involved personally in this situation, now almost accepting what seemed to be his inevitable fate. What he worried about now was what they were going to do with his wife, and she seemed to become as frightened at this previously (unthinkable?)unthought of possibility as she had been of her husband´s situation. They both realized that the soldier was probably fixing to call for the other soldiers outside to take him away, and maybe they would take his wife also. Time was running out. They knew their situation was quickly becoming hopeless. They both cried in fear and held each other´s trembling shoulders, as though it were the last time they would be seeing each other. His wife acted like she was about to become histerical and start screaming. She closed her eyes tightly and tears poured from her swollen eyes straight down the fronts of her cheeks. She did it so that she could see better. She was blinded with tears. The husband was almost as bad off. He tried to appear brave but he was terrified at the thought that they would try to do something to his wife also. I could see it in his facial expressions and worried glances at the men and at me, and at the door. I wanted to kill the two soldiers. If I had had a pistol I would have taken both of them hostage, gotten their M16s and then tricked the rest of the soldiers into coming into the tiny shack. I wouldn't have let them take the couple. I felt too much anger by then. 

It was terrible to watch the couple agonizing in their frustration, looking for any opportunity for salvation, no matter how small. Afraid that anything they said might even make the outcome even worse. The man couldn't fight back because of the danger for his wife. There seemed to still remain a chance that if he accepted being arrested, that maybe nothing would happen to his wife. At least it seemed there was a chance. He probably would have fought them if she hadn't been there. (I saw 

I decided to hope for the best for them. They were probably just going to arrest them and question them, or maybe they would spend some days in jail until the soldier's superiors could confirm the other last name of the businessman. They would conduct an investigation and have a trial. I was probably over exaggerating the seriousness of the situation. My imagination almost got me into big trouble here. I must be too tired from all this traveling without enough sleep. 

The soldier behind the desk now ordered the other soldier in the room to go out and bring in 4 of the other soldiers and to take the man prisoner. Then the soldier asked me impatiently what it was that I wanted, and I told him hesitatingly that I needed a pass to go through Guatemala because I was traveling to Panama by car. I tried not to show any concern or understanding for what was taking place with the couple so he wouldn't get worried about me being a witness. Besides, he could easilly hear that my Spanish was terrible. He quickly stamped some papers and copied some information on a form and handed me the pass. He had almost forgotten about the couple. To him the matter was finished. He had followed his orders from his superiors. He was a good soldier, and ideal soldier. He was anxious now to get on to more important matters, things that had more importance to him than this sobbing pair of bothersome Indian compatriots. He began to glance around for the prostitute. I hurried quickly to leave the room as the five soldiers all walked into the room and listened to their chief tel them to escort the businessman outside, where I imagined they would be taking him to a van or something like that to take him into the city to the jail. I didn´t want to be caught inside now if there was a fight. I had already decided that it wasn´t possible to help the couple. They were outnumbered. If anything was going to happen, it was going to happen now, at this very moment. There were too many soldiers and it was just an impossible situation. I sympathized com 

As I left the driveway, I glanced back regretingly, praying that the couple would be all right. They were a fine couple, really nice people. The businessman was lucky to have such a wife and to have seen for himself how much he meant to her. I wondered about their children. They probably had several as is the custom in these countries. They were probably with relatives in their hometown village. They would probably be waiting up for their parents tonight. They would be all right for now. I strained to look back at the border shack as I pulled out of the gravel covered driveway and got a glimpse of the soldiers escorting the couple around to the back side of the border post building toward where there was a small footpath leading down a hill. When I had traveled about 500 ft further down the road, I heard the unmistakable sound of two long bursts of machine gun fire and one short. They must have killed both of them! The businessman, because they thought he was helping the guerrilla, and his wife too so that there would be no witnesses to what they did here today! I could hardly believe what had happened. And our government is supporting this kind of scum? 

Would they kill me now along the highway also? It would be easy for them. Would they radio some of their simean counterparts further down the road and have them open up on me as I drove by? There would be no witnesses. They would probably blame it on the guerrilla. What an easy way out. Maybe this is what they would decide to do now. I had been a witness at least to part of it all. I couldn't believe they had actually done it! No wonder the couple were so upset! They had probably heard from others what happened when you were arrested by the military. What murduring animals! It made me furious. 

I thought to myself how wonderful it would have been to have crushed the skull of the little faggot soldier behind the desk. If it hadn´t been for his weapons, he couldn´t have taken on a school girl in a fight. He really deserved it. Now I could see why the guerrilla were fighting against the government of Guatemala. The government is nothing but a bunch of rabied animals! It looked like the guerrillas had plenty of justification for their revolution. What a bunch of lies in American newspapers! What a bunch of self-serving sons-of-bitches they all are. They print whatever is good business to print and whatever will keep their miserable little jobs for them. All that crap about the Communist guerrillas and how the rightfully elected, democratically elected government of Guatemala, supported by the U.S. government of course, was just trying to defend their legally elected government. What a bunch of horseshit! What kind of crap are American newspaper reporters feeding us in the U.S.? Are they really misinformed or are they reporting lies deliberately for some reason? Maybe the reporters have the same mentality that I just observed in these soldiers. All of these thoughts ran through my head as I raced toward the capitol of Guatemala City. But there wasn't enough time to know what to do when it all happened. There wasn´t even time enough to stop and think about it now. I needed to get out of Guatemala fast. This is a totally uncivilized country. Nothing like this could happen in the United States, ever. The consequences of it all were too serious to make fast decisions, ones that could have ended my life as fast as they ended the couples lives. Life means nothing down here, maybe nowhere... but even less here than anywhere else I had known.