Guatemala, Military March Sparks Protests
Ten years after the signature of the peace agreements, the Guatemalan army carried out a mass march, openly rejected by various sectors of a society, where effects of the war are still underlying.

The Military parade started on Friday's early hours in the Central Park, meanwhile, some blocks away, hundreds of people protested the ceremony and demanded punishment for the individuals accused of genocide.

The march to commemorate the 135th anniversary of the army was attended by air, land and sea units, students of the nursing and mechanics schools and the Engineers Department.

The Guatemalan army showed its terrestrial mobile vehicles, helicopters, Araba and A-37 planes among other military artifacts.

National Indigenous and Farming Coordination denounced the army's alarming budget despite the peace agreement stipulating a change on the role of that institution accordingly to a democratic society.

The organization recalled that massacres, the destruction of many communities and exclusion policies have left deep underlying effects.

Suns and daughters of the war's victims called on citizens to protest the military march and the growing militarization in the nation in the Morazan Park, very near the Presidential Headquarters.

Participants demanded the elimination of the combined operations between the police and the army in the streets which are inconsistent with the spirit and stipulations of the peace agreements.