Many of your countrymen speak of a culture of violence and death in Guatemala. The culture of death is imposed by economic and political interests, the arrogance of power, corruption. I blame the first world for having taken our riches for so many years. I am speaking of the superpowers that dominate the life of the world. Those that have caused and tolerated the death of our people, those responsible for the plundering of the third world.
Silence is also part of repression.
If our people are the issue, tranquility and peace have always been most sacred to us. Violence and repression are so incompatable with the peaceful face of the Guatemalan people that it is a permanent shock to discover the two faces of Guatemala. If I were a guerrilla, you wouldn't see me in this office. To me, the guerrilla is a reality that faces us. There are confrontations every day.