U.N. peace‐building in Guatemala

A country deeply divided along ethnic and class lines, Guatemala is now emerging from the longest and bloodiest internal war in Latin America in recent times. Guatemalan society—the vast civil society networks, the government, the military, the guerrilla organizations (URNG), and the business sector—looks eagerly toward the formal signing of the peace accords, the result of arduous negotiations. Although the armed conflict may end—no small achievement given its horrendous human cost—the problems that produced the war remain in place and will affect the long‐term prospects for real peace. Although the U.N. has been present in Guatemala through the U.N. High Commissioner on Refugees and the U.N. Development Program, we will focus on MINUGUA (Mision de las Naciones Unidas de verification de derechos humanos en Guatemala), the organization charged with monitoring the nation's human rights situation. We will examine MINUGUA's role in laying the basis for peace in violence‐torn Guatemala. MINUGUA has followed its mandate to the letter, but the mandate has serious limitations that raise two far‐reaching questions: Is MINUGUA's role too limited to produce real change in Guatemala? And could the international community intervene more effectively

Citizen journalism · Civil society · Government (linguistics · Human rights · Latin Americans · Mandate · Negotiation · Political science · Politics · Refugee · International Development and Aid · International Relations in Latin America · Law · Peacebuilding and International Security · Public Administration

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