Since 1981, God's World News has been helping children to understand and interpret the world around them. Peace accord notwithstanding, Guatemala remains an armed camp. Guatemala, a country smaller than the state of Iowa, is literally burning. The government reports 800 forest fires have been raging out of control for weeks, threatening a fragile ecology as well as its tenuous economy. In southern states, irrigation water is so hot farmers must cool it before putting it on crops.
Fires there consume thousands of acres of pine forests.
Likewise, little relief is expected soon for Guatemala's social climate. Crime and chaos reign in spite of a peace accord signed between government officials and guerrilla forces in December 1996. It ended the country's 36-year civil war, which cost 140,000 lives. The internal conflict did little to reduce grinding poverty in a nation whose largely rural, Indian population lives in some of the most difficult conditions found in the Central America. At the same time, the judicial system has been unable to respond adequately to a crime rate that has rapidly accelerated since the war ended.