In Guatemala, a steep, rutted road to peace

[Judi Lynn]

Dec 23, 1:45 PM EST
In Guatemala, a steep, rutted road to peace

By JUAN CARLOS LLORCA
Associated Press Writer

COCOP, Guatemala (AP) -- Guatemala's government is hoping the steep, rutted road to Cocop is a path to lasting peace.Abandoned for years, the repaired dirt roadway has restored access to an isolated valley that the army stormed in 1981, killing 79 people.

It may not seem like much, but the road represents a new level of war reparations: Government aid that tries to rebuild wartorn communities as a whole, rather than handing victims cash payments that often sow resentment among their former enemies.

Despite peace accords in 1996 that ended 36 years of civil war, distrust of both neighbors and government officials still runs deep in Guatemala, and many communities are still divided between former leftist guerrillas and paramilitaries recruited by a U.S.-backed Guatemalan army. The war left 200,000 dead, mostly poor Mayan peasants.

The Guatemalan army implemented a scorched earth policy to root out communist guerrilla supporters and make examples out of suspected sympathizers.

"When they came to kill us, soldiers were drunk. They would shoot children, women and old people," Ramirez said. "Then they burned the houses."

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The new aid does not halt cash payments to survivors of human rights violations committed by the government. They receive one-time payments of between $3,200 and $5,800 from the war reparations program. And former paramilitary members who were forced by the army to fight leftist guerrillas receive about $700 each.

More:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_GUATEMALA_ROAD_TO_PEACE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-12-23-13-45-05