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Guatemala Marks 21st Anniversary of Civil War Peace Deal

  • Relatives of massacre victims bless their remains.

    Relatives of massacre victims bless their remains. | Photo: EFE

Published 29 December 2017
Opinion

Guatemala's civil war lasted over three decades and resulted in over 200,000 people murdered or disappeared. 

Guatemala is commemorating the 21st anniversary of peace accords that ended a 36-year-long civil war. 

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The National Council for the Fulfillment of the Peace Accords is also urging the government to fulfill its commitment to social justice.

Guatemala's civil war began in 1960, six years after the U.S.-backed military coup that ousted democratically-elected military officer Jacobo Arbenz, who led a popular program of agrarian reform that affected landed elites and the infamous United Fruit Company. Shortly after the coup, left-wing parties and labor unions were outlawed by the state and progressive social and economic policies were dismantled. 

By December 1962, a group of military men and former left-wing politicians and organizers formed the Rebel Armed Forces. Indigenous people and campesinos across the country joined the revolutionary movement, becoming targets of subsequent military governments. 

Towards the late 1970s and early 1980s, tens of thousands of Guatemalan Indigenous peoples and campesinos were forced by the army to abandon their lands and go to "model towns" that were under strict military supervision. The Guatemalan army built 45 "model towns" with the help of U.S.-based Evangelical Christian groups in order to prevent Indigenous peoples and campesinos from joining the guerrilla.      

The peace accords were followed by the gradual dismantling of these towns, where thousands died at the hands of soldiers and preventable diseases. Only three years ago, exhumations began in Santa Avelina, one of the first "model towns." One hundred and eight bodies buried in clandestine common graves were identified, allowing family members to lay them to rest.

In a press release published Friday, the National Council for the Fulfillment of the Peace Accords highlighted that the conflict's "negative effects are still present in the society as a whole," lamenting the fact that 21 years after the peace accords, "state fulfillment of a significant number of compromises established in the accords is still lagging."    

Among the deficits identified by the council are the gradual decrease in the National Compensation Program's budget to 11 percent of what it was assigned in 2003 and an impunity rate of over 90 for cases of violence against women and general violence. The document shows that discrimination against Indigenous peoples, land distribution and poverty remain a source of conflict and reiterates the importance of fulfilling a key compromise: a constitutional reform to establish the National Civil Police as the only entity responsible for public order and internal security.    

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