Guerrillas Arrive in Guatemala City for Signing of Treaty

Peacefully entering the capital they once dreamed of seizing, unarmed rebels waited Saturday for their top leaders to return to sign a pact ending Central America’s last and longest war.

“Long live peace!” announced a white banner with blue letters displayed on a major thoroughfare. It was signed “URNG,” the Spanish initials of the Guatemala National Revolutionary Unity group.

Guerrillas long hidden from the public grew bolder in the days leading up to today, when their leaders and the government are scheduled to formally end the 35-year war that killed at least 140,000 people.

With the pact, Guatemala will join its Central American neighbors in ending the fratricidal fighting that burned across the region in the 1980s.

Sources inside the rebel organization said scores of guerrillas were returning to the capital Saturday, when a new national reconciliation law protecting them from arrest took effect.

The law forgives many crimes committed by both sides during the conflict, but it excludes torture, genocide and forced disappearances. Human rights advocates have criticized the law, saying vagueness in its language could foil prosecution of government agents accused of atrocities.

Scores of elite soldiers and national police in black berets patrolled the capital’s international airport Saturday, providing extra security during the arrival of the rebel commanders and dozens of foreign dignitaries.

Members of the rebel general command lived in Mexico during the peace negotiations, which started six years ago.