Guatemala Needs Sped up Agreements
Nearly a decade after the signing of peace in Guatemala, there is still a substantial delay in compensation to victims of the armed conflict, a main player in the process, Ricardo Rosales, said.

Despite several agreements have been fulfilled, a lot is yet to be done regarding democratization, governability and solution of economic and social problems, Rosales told Prensa Latina.

In opinion of Rosales, a former leader of rebel Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union which became a political party, one of the most serious problems is widespread poverty in the countryside and unequal land distribution and exploitation.

Asked about the National Compensation Program, started on Thursday, an event Rosales described as positive. We will have to wait, he said, for the plan to be equitable and cover more people.

Compensation for some war victims will be of about 3,200 dollars, payable in at least three periods.

Handing over of checks began with several years of delay during a ceremony at the Estancia de la Virgen village, in the department of Chimaltenango, where Army forces killed 352 civilians in 1982.

The ceremony attended by President Oscar Berger ended abruptly, when someone tried to read a document demanding to speed up payments.

According to a report by the Historical Clarification Commission of Guatemala, at least 200,000 people were killed and 40,000 disappeared during 36 years of civil war.