they came to this place on the back of a truck , listening to music in the background , signed a confession or their death warrant , then were blindfolded and led to the side of a hole in the ground to become silenced with the edge of a hoe , a length of pipe , their throat slit by a serrated edge of a palm frond taken from a palm growing nearby to prevent them making any sound , the palm coming from the earth , and supplying the means to take people back into the earth , those thrown in still alive and dying , music blearing in the background hiding any cries from those still waiting .