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With prayers to Ajau, the creator, and an altar of fire decorated with colorful candles and resins of trees, Indigenous people in Guatemala commemorated Thursday the 20-year anniversary of the end of the bloody civil war in the country between 1960 and 1996.
OPINION:
20 Years After Accords, Guatemala Grapples With Imperfect Peace
In the midst of drizzling sky, a hundred Mayan priests and leaders, along with government officials, reflected over the past two decades since the end of the war.
"Before the energies of the great creator we ask that we can find real peace," Florinda Gonzalez, 40, spiritual guide of the Kaqchikel people, told AFP during the ceremony at the Kaminal Juyu archaeological site west of the capital Guatemala City.
The United Nations-sponsored truth commission concluded in 1999 that the war between the army and four leftist guerrilla factions left 200,000 dead or missing, with Indigenous areas in western and northern Guatemala being hardest hit by scorched earth campaigns that the U.N. said amounted to genocide.
The report blamed government forces for over 90 percent of massacres and human rights violations committed during the conflict.
"Twenty years have passed since the peace accords, but we have seen issues of stagnation and slow progress, and specifically (regarding) the rights of Indigenous peoples," Pedro Ixchop, a Maya-K'iche priest and Indigenous leader, said during the ceremony.
Guatemala has 22 ethnic groups of Mayan origin, in addition to the Garifuna (Afro-descendant) and Xinca peoples who represent 40 percent of its 16 million inhabitants, according to official estimates.
In line with what Ixchop said, Oxfam Guatemala marked the anniversary by calling on the government to comply with the peace accords, increase tax collection, and eliminate tax privileges.
After "20 years of the Peace Accords it is time to increase tax collection through direct taxes and eliminate fiscal privileges to combat inequality in Guatemala," the international aid organization said in a statement.
Rigoberto Casasola, the deputy secretary of peace, explained to AFP that one of the tasks that are yet to be accomplished after the end of the armed conflict is to bring development to Indigenous areas, where poverty in some communities reaches 80 percent.
IN DEPTH:
Guatemala: New President, Old Problems
But Guatemala is far from peaceful as it has been struggling with a wave of violence that leaves some 6,000 dead a year, with half of all crimes attributed to drug trafficking and gangs.
There is also an unprecedented fight against corruption led by the Office of the Prosecutor and the U.N. anti-corruption commission which last year removed the government of President Otto Pérez, who is facing a trial for leading a multi-million dollar fraud ring.
Almost 60 percent of the population of Guatemala lives under the poverty line. Poverty and inequality were the main reasons behind the decades-long conflict and despite 20 years of peace it continues to be one of the main challenges facing the Central American nation.
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