Guatemala Ends Another Year Without Peace

Guatemala Ends Another Year Without PeaceGuatemala, Dec. 30. -A number of issues are still pending in Guatemala today, 14 years after the signing of the peace agreements and the end of an armed conflict that began in 1960 and left over 200,000 dead and missing.

As analysts say, a new war is being carried out in this country marked by intense violence, which is leaving an alarming number of killings every 12 year.

This adds to problems such as shortages in food, housing, and health care.

A lack of equality remains the main problem in Guatemalan society, hard hit by social exclusion, poverty and discrimination, chiefly in the indigenous communities, resulting from that 36-year internal conflict.

Young gangs have had decisive influence on the insecurity prevailing in the country, which has some 23,000 police to protect 13 million inhabitants.

But that violence, which takes the lives of about 20 people daily, has deeper roots, which come from the social inequality. (Prensa Latina)