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Article: 'We have not been honest with ourselves'.(the United States in Guatemala)(Editorial)
- Article from:
- National Catholic Reporter
- Article date:
- May 16, 2003
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 National Catholic Reporter. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The travails of Guatemala may seem insignificant compared to events in Iraq and the Middle East.
It is a Central American country, heavily Roman Catholic, that not many take notice of, but it has endured hideous violence at the hands of a string of vicious military rulers. The massive waves of violence, of genocidal killing of the rural Mayan population and intimidation of mainstream institutions subsided with the signing of a peace accord in 1996. By then, according to the United Nations and church human rights experts, more than 200,000 people had died or disappeared over the course of a 36-year civil war.
Much of the killing, according to human rights ...