A Guatemalan Church leader is afraid that peace will mean an end to international support for justice and reconciliation in Guatemala.
War is a successful enterprise, easy to sell.
But that's not the case with peace. The Guatemalan priest made the comments during the second day of the Ecumenical Encounter for Peace in Mesoamerica, 9-12 October, gathering of more than 50 Catholic and Protestant Church leaders and activists from Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico. The day was dedicated to hearing testimony from peacemakers in several countries of the war-torn region. He recounted for participants the involvement of Church leaders here in the long and difficult process of negotiating peace between the military-dominated government and leftist guerrillas. Besides his warning about a possible cutback in international assistance during the postwar period, Mr Palacios also expressed concern that an amnesty will be approved in the final weeks of the peace talks.