The closures of the union halls and Agrarian Reform offices that had opened in all the villages were carried out in a hail of bullets, with the imprisonment of whoever was found inside at the time; there were blacklists with names supplied by anonymous informants. Many of those arrested, humble persons without influence or allies, were tortured, often to death, their bodies buried or burned and their families never told of their end. Panic seeped into every crack in Guatemalan society, particularly among those without means, and violent excesses went beyond any horror ever before seen.
