wfn.org | Peace in Guatemala

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
Eastern, about DAILY NEWS RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (37
notes).

Note 34 by UMNS on April 23, 1997 at 16:03 Eastern (6982 characters).

Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT:  Linda Bloom                           222(10-21-71B){34}
          New York (212) 870-3803                   April 23, 1997

EDITORS NOTE: Photos available with this story.

Accustomed to living in fear,
Guatemalans begin to know peace

                          A UMNS Analysis
                         by Paul Jeffrey*

     Although government officials and guerrilla leaders put an
end to 36 years of civil war when they signed a formal peace
treaty at year's end, Methodist leaders in Guatemala say people at
the grassroots are just starting to feel the effects of peace.
     "People are still afraid, though less than before," said
Juana Riquiac, coordinator of a Methodist-sponsored health program
here in the country's wartorn western highlands. "It's going to
take a long time for people to understand what this really means.
People have grown accustomed to living in fear."
     Riquiac told UMNS that indigenous villagers are now less
afraid to walk around at night. "It's easier for us to have
meetings in the evening now," she said. "Until a few months ago,
if you walked around at night the civil defense patrol might grab
you and accuse you of being a guerrilla."
     The civil defense patrols, commonly known here as PACs, were
almost all demobilized as part of the peace process. Created in
the early '80s as part of the government's counterinsurgency
campaign, the PACs were singled out frequently by international
rights groups for violating human rights.
     Despite the dismantling of the PACs, Riquiac said some
problems remain. "The army showed these men how to massacre and
kill. In one community where I work they tied a woman to a tree
and ordered people to stone her, just like Stephen in the Bible.
Those memories don't go away easily. And those men don't 
change their habits overnight."
     According to the Rev. Diego Chicoj, Riquiac's husband and a
Methodist pastor here, "Bit by bit we're learning what the peace
accords mean for our communities."
     Citing one example, Chicoj said, "People can now say what
they're thinking. There's more freedom to express yourself than
before, because now no one is going to say 'Here comes the
patrol'."
     Chicoj claimed the demobilization of the PACs, in which most
adult men in indigenous areas were obligated to serve, also has
meant more time for production. "Instead of losing 24 or 48 hours
a week being forced to patrol, now the men can work well and sleep
well," he reported.
     In some communities, however, he warned, "the PACs still have
control."
     The Rev. Rigoberto Perez, a Catholic priest in the nearby
town of Santa Cruz del Quiche, said the PAC disarmament has been
largely "a symbolic act." According to Perez, "There's a big gap
between what the army says and what it practices."
     He compared the situation of the PACs to the demobilization
in 1995 of thousands of "military commissioners" -- retired
military officials who, in exchange for impunity and other
benefits, coordinated the army's relationship with rural villages.
     "They are still there," reported Perez, "and people continue
referring to them as commissioners. Many of them are criminals,
and the people are still afraid of them."
     According to a United Nations official in army's civil
affairs department, who asked not to be named, the commissioners
are still functioning and several PACs have been kept intact
"under the guise of fighting growing crime."
     One of the most controversial elements of the final peace
accords is a limited amnesty. Although the courts here have
initially refused to apply the amnesty to military officials
seeking to avoid prosecution for massacres and other human rights
violations, many activists claim the law is too broad. 
     Chicoj said the question has been discussed a lot in the
communities where he ministers. "I believe an amnesty is
acceptable, but only for those who ask forgiveness," he said.
     Chicoj, who also coordinates a church-sponsored project that
markets textile products produced by a group of widows, said he's
hopeful people in rural villages can peacefully live together
despite more than three decades of conflict. But he also knows it
will take some time to dispel the anger.
     The peace accords call for sweeping changes in Guatemalan
society, including new respect for indigenous peoples and culture.
Chicoj, a K'iche'-speaking Maya, said he has discussed the peace
accords with several of the grassroots groups with which he works.
Yet he admits to being a minority within the Guatemalan Methodist
Church.
     "The majority of Methodists in Guatemala only talk about
peace in spiritual terms," he complained. "Only about 8 to 10
percent of us see peace both in spiritual and material terms."
     The prevailing attitude of Methodist leaders here means the
church's members will not participate in an ecumenical program
entitled "Educating for Peace."
     According to the Rev. Gerardo Valdes, coordinator of
Consolation Ministries for the Latin American Council of Churches
(CLAI), Guatemalan Methodist leaders rejected participation in the
ecumenical program during a meeting in December.
     Valdes characterized the Methodists' reluctance to
participate in ecumenical peace efforts as part of the "culture of
confrontation" in Guatemala.
     "We're a country that's plagued by economic, social, ethnic,
and religious confrontation," he said. "Everyone is suspicious and
distrustful of people on the other side of an issue or on the
other side of a denominational boundary."
     Many Guatemalan Protestants are participating in the
ecumenical peace program, including Anglicans, Mennonites, some
Nazarenes and Presbyterians, and a local association of churches
in the department of Solola. Roman Catholics in several dioceses
around the country are also participating.
      Funded by Protestant and Catholic churches in Germany, the
program will carry out a series of seminars throughout the
countryside, examining such themes as human rights in the Bible,
nonviolent conflict resolution, women and peace, and cooperative
games for children.
     "Peace isn't something achieved magically when some people
sign a piece of paper," stated Valdes. "Rather, it's something we
build everyday in our neighborhoods and communities. The church
has an important pastoral mission to help build a culture of
peace."
     The CLAI-sponsored program will also put together a
"martyrology" of evangelical leaders assassinated during the war.
The listing will include two Methodist pastors in the Ixil Maya
village of Cotzal who were killed by government-sponsored death
squads in the '80s.
#  #  # 
     
     * Paul Jeffrey is a United Methodist missionary in Central
America. He lives near Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

               

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