The signing of the peace agreement did not succeed in making violence disappear in Guatemala. it is still listed as one of the countries with the highest rates of violence in the world. Since the year 2000 the mortality rate has been rising, reaching the highest levels in 2009.
The Scars of the Civil War
After the Second World War, Guatemala was affected by a beginning of the civil war in which several families from different communities of indigenous people were massacred and deprived of their belongings and rights as individuals. After the 1996 peace accords, the aftermath still affects the country’s poorest families, especially in the rural areas of Guatemala.