Clad in a white hairdresser's smock, but still wearing his black army boots, Porras is emblematic of Guatemala's struggle to return to normalcy after thirty-six years of civil war. It was Central America's longest and bloodiest civil war and ended only in December 1996 with the signing of the final peace accords between the government and rebel troops. "Going from having fought in such a violent war between brothers to adapting to civilian life is a very difficult change," admits Porras. "My dream was always to be a soldier, and I'm proud I could fight in the war and make my country better." Now that the war is over, Porras is going into the business of hairstyling, because that's what his father did.

Roots of the Conflict
Guatemala's war began in 1960, six years after the CIA trained a group of dissidents who overthrew the democratically elected, but left-leaning, government of Jacobo Arbenz. For nearly four decades after that coup, Guatemala was ruled by a series of military dictatorships. In an attempt to destroy a guerrilla uprising, government forces wiped out four hundred villages; 150,000 people were killed by both sides; and an estimated one million Guatemalans out of a total population of ten million became refugees. Nearly 60 percent of Guatemalans are Mayan Indians, the most marginalized group in the country, and they were often the target of savage campaigns during the war.

Many of the new commissions are underfunded and behind schedule. But Raquel Zelaya, the government's Secretary of Peace, pointed out in an interview last September that, "We had thirty-six years of war and only nine months of peace. This is a long-term process."

The first priority of the international community after the signing of the peace accords was to account for all the combatants, recover their weapons, and assign them to temporary shelters. This task was completed in early 1997. The former soldiers were then given an opportunity to take part in various vocational training programs like the one Avilio Porras is enrolled in. Unfortunately, not all the combatants know where they will live once their training is complete. Many lost touch with their families and communities during the decades of war. Antonio Pirir is a former guerrilla radio operator still living at the Los Brilliantes shelter in late 1997. "Those of us still here in the shelter have no homes to go to," said Pirir. "What we'd like to do is establish a settlement of former guerrillas who will work together in a collective manner. We want to farm and keep livestock. But we need a final destination and land to cultivate. The most difficult thing for us is our lack of formal education." Pirir is among the 56 percent of adults in Guatemala who cannot read or write.

The reinsertion program for the combatants is an important aspect of the peace process, explains Johanna Mendelsohn of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The agency has split the cost of the $3.5 million program with the United Nations Development Programme. "We all know in post-conflict situations that creating stability and security are the most important factors," says Mendelsohn. "Taking away guns and giving people an opportunity to get a new start is basic to rehabilitation in any war-torn society. Certainly Guatemala is a war-torn society. Thirty-six years of war have left a tremendous amount of disarray."

Guatemala is also a country where poverty is the norm and opportunities for meaningful work are scarce. According to the Washington Office on Latin America, "Guatemala has the largest economy of Central America. But 2 percent of landowners own two-thirds of the country's land. Three of every four Guatemalans, and 92 percent of its large indigenous population live in poverty." Foreign Minister Stein declares that, "Guatemala is a very rich country with a lot of poor people. It's a problem of distribution and participation."

Foreign Minister Stein recounts that, "when you confront a Guatemalan and tell them that at some point half of our National Assembly will be comprised of indigenous people, it's still too much for them. When the first indigenous congress people assumed their posts, wearing their own indigenous dress, many people shuddered. They didn't like it at all. Because the image that we grew up with was that indigenous people were servants. But it's bound to change."

Some positive changes are occurring. In Quetzaltenango, the second largest city in Guatemala, a Mayan Indian named Rigoberto Queme was recently elected mayor, the first time ever an indigenous person has held the post. Although his election was greeted with racist graffiti telling the "dirty Indians" to get out, Queme is optimistic about making local government, at least, truly representative of all the people. "In Guatemala City there is a lot of theoretical debate about how you build a multicultural state. Here [in Quetzaltenango] you have a concrete example of how to do that. Everything we do tries to incorporate indigenous and non-indigenous alike, along with women, youth, and the private sector."

Like most people in Guatemala, Queme is still mostly waiting to see the true fruits of peace. "We believe the peace accords are good because they ended the conflict, and because they deal with important issues that are necessary for the construction of a democracy. We are, however, cautious and do not think the peace accords represent the solution to all the problems in the country."

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