Lumbi Rizo family story (adapted from recorded testimony taken in February 2003):

On December 8, 1986, at approximately 11 p.m., contra attacked the Lumbi Rizo home in the tiny community of La Unión in the El Cedro district of Nicaragua. The 16 people in the house were awakened by gunshot and barking dogs. One contra shouted, "Open the door if you don't want me to throw a bomb in the house!" When Luz's mother, Elida del Carmen Rizo Flores, opened the door, the contra shot inside, wounding her in the breast. She slammed the door and the contra continued shooting through the door, through a window, and then threw three grenades through a window. Before the contra left, Luz Mabel had been shot in the arm and her father, Jose Francisco Lumbi Herrera, and her 38-day-old sister, Zaida Lorena, had both been killed. Her mother had been shot again in the side; her 4-year-old sister, Elida Janet, had been badly wounded in the face and buttock; her l4-year-old brother, Juan Agustin, had been shot in the arm; and her 21-year-old brother, Apolinar, had been shot in the leg. The family stayed in the house for the night, terrified the contra would return. In the early morning they sent for help and were carried to Jinotega, about four to five hours by truck. After their bodies were healed, they were still too frightened to return to La Unión and they began a new life in Jinotega. In order to support the family, Elida del Carmen sold the family's cows and land. They later moved to Waslala and then eventually back to La Unión.