Reina Izabel Garcia-Martinez v. John Ashcroft, Attorney General

Reina Garcia-Martinez (Garcia) has survived atrocities that most of us experience only in our worst nightmares. Her rural village in Guatemala was pillaged by both the guerillas and the military. Garcia’s eventual rape was inextricably tied to the village’s affiliation, in the minds of the Guatemalan military, with the guerillas. Because “[pjersecution is stamped on every page of this record[,]” Lopez-Galarza v. INS, 99 F.3d 954 , 959 (9th Cir.1996) (citation omitted),' and the IJ’s determination that Garcia failed to demonstrate past persecution is not supported by substantial evidence, we GRANT the Petition for Review and REMAND Garcia’s case to the BIA, so that the agency can determine whether Garcia is eligible for asylum.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Garcia was born in the village of San Andres Villa Seca in Guatemala in 1973. Twenty to twenty-five families lived in the small, rural village. When Garcia was about nine years old, fighting between the Guatemalan military and insurgent guerillas spilled over into her village. At first, it appeared that the guerillas, rather than the military posed a greater threat to the villagers. The guerillas “would come at night and they would…