The peace treaty was particularly necessary for the business interests of the international companies active in Guatemala. It provided them, and the country's military and economic elite, the possibility of adapting to the changed global conditions. Their investments and property enjoy the protection of the law, while maintaining the repressive police apparatus. The causes of the civil war, meanwhile, remain. The country's social structures display a tremendous degree of social inequality, the brutal exploitation of the working class and an unequal and unfair distribution of land.
Average wages are three dollars a day.
On March 30, the Spanish public prosecutor's office raised objections against the investigations by Ruiz Polanco. They explained that the Spanish courts were not responsible for this affair and that Guatemala must have the liberty to work its way through the horrors of its past. Moreover, it considers that the crimes occurred at a time of civil war, and thus fall under martial law. This is a further reason the charges should not to be accepted in Spain, according to the prosecutor's office. Such legal niceties, however, cannot hide the fact that things other than justice and truth are at stake.