“History must be known to prevent what has hurt us so much from continuing to have an impact on the population,” said the country's acting president, Karin Herrera, at an event in the Patio de la Paz of the National Palace of Culture .
Regarding the Day of Dignity for the Victims of the Internal Armed Conflict, the President emphasized that this reminds us of the attention we must pay to the survivors of this period in view of the state repression of 1960-1996.
The Presidential Commission for Peace and Human Rights (Copadeh) presented a plan, to which Herrera explained that its main purpose was to restore memory.
This will strengthen the work to restore the files of the extinct National Reparations Program, he explained.
The Minister of Culture Liwy Grazioso took part in the activity; the Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Mechú as well as victims and representatives of affected families.
After exchanging the Peace Rose, Elvia Antonieta Sep, on behalf of the Platform of Victims of the Internal Armed Conflict, thanked her for the award as a messenger.
Copadeh's executive director, Oswaldo Samayoa, stressed the new government's commitment to restructuring this institution and thereby preserving the dignity of the victims.
He considered all these measures important to protect rights, harmony, reconciliation and guarantees of non-recurrence.
On this day of the year, Guatemala remembers the victims of the internal armed conflict on the basis of a decree passed in 2004 by the (unicameral) Congress of the Republic.
On February 25, 1999, the report of the Commission for Historical Enlightenment of Guatemala: Remembering Silence was delivered in this capital.
The investigation blamed state security forces, mainly the army, for 93 percent of human rights violations during the conflict.
According to the United Nations, the civil war that broke out in this Central American region left more than 200,000 people dead or missing.
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