Peace in Guatemala
The accord on security and justice that representatives of Guatemala's government and guerrillas signed last week is a long- sought achievement. It is part of a productive peace effort that promises to transform one of the world's most violent and repressive nations. But vigilance by Guatemalans and the outside world will be needed to turn the promise into real change.
Guatemala's guerrilla war has been staggeringly long and brutal, lasting 35 years and killing perhaps 200,000 people. It grew out of a 1954 CIA-backed coup that toppled an elected leftist president who was opposed by United Fruit Co. The military dictatorship that came to power lasted until 1985. It was responsible for the near-genocidal slaughter of Guatemala's Mayan majority.
Today, 2 percent of Guatemalans own 70 percent of the land. Mayan women attend school for an average of 1.4 years, and one in ten Mayan infants dies in its first year.
The series of peace accords signed since March 1994 cover human rights, Mayan rights, social welfare and land ownership and set up a Commission on Clarification to deal with past abuses.
The latest accord on security and justice cuts the size of the military by a third and removes the army from any role in internal security. It creates a new, more professional police and proposes some judicial reforms, including the establishment of a public defender organization.
The peace accords have already brought concrete results. Most importantly, Guatemala is no longer at war, though violence has not been eliminated. Last October, soldiers killed 11 Mayans after they returned to their mountain villages.
The accords have also yielded reforms that the National Assembly, which is dominated by elites of European descent, would never have adopted on its own. These include serious land reform and new, more inclusive, political structures.
As a result, elections were held last year that put Mayan politicians into the assembly for the first time. Mayans were also elected mayors of several cities, including the country's second-largest.
The challenge now is to carry out the accords in full. The most direct challenge is likely to come from wealthy landowners who will lose some of their powers, and soldiers and police cashiered in bold anti-corruption purges conducted by Guatemala's new president, Alvaro Arzu Irigoyen.
There has been a recent wave of kidnappings and other crimes attributed to former officers. Even without violence, it will be hard to translate the accords into reality because they are often vague and threaten the privileges of Guatemala's powerful interests.
It would help if the United Nations retained a strong presence in Guatemala. The United Nations has been there for two years, verifying compliance with the human rights accord, the only one to take effect. A similar U.N. mission has been crucial to the success of peace efforts in El Salvador. This is the kind of job the United Nations does best.
The United States, which has so long played a destructive role in the affairs of Guatemala, now has an opportunity to do something constructive. It should make sure the United Nations has the financing and support to stay until its work is done.
-- The New York Times