"Things have been very tough for us, we still cannot trust the authorities."

  Interview with Nazaria Tum Sanic, leader of the Communities of People in Resistance.

What are the current challenges faced by the CPRs at this time?

"We have been through three stages in our development - the resistance, the political struggle to announce ourselves to the world and break the barriers placed around us, and the negotiations for the land. We've now overcome the third stage. It has been very difficult to resettle the communities and we're still really at the emergency stage. It's going to take a while longer until we make that decisive step towards developing our productive capacities.

What we're working on now is drafting an overall strategy for the communities. Although each community has a different situation, different climate, and so on, we need to elaborate a joint strategy in order to direct our efforts in the same direction.

For example, we need to define the functions of the local authorities in each community. Before we didn't have so many committees. Now we need to define what each of them will do, not just in terms of their structures, but in terms of the production. We have secured land, but we must now work out what we are going to do with it so that in reality it serves as a source of development for the communities, which is one of the ultimate goals of our struggle. We're really entering the fourth stage in the process of our communities.

There's also a lot still to do with the government. They promised us compensation, they talked about development programmes, but we've heard nothing more about them.

Why did it take so long to agree on the lands for purchasing?

"Well, that's where you can see the lack of willingness on the part of the government to help us. It was part of the accords on the displaced people, it was part of the government's responsibilities. We've secured the land, but that wasn't because the government wanted to give it us. They went on and on stretching out the negotiations, seeking to break us up, so that everyone went off their own way. Their policy has been to try to break our unity.

Has the transition process from war to peace been difficult for the CPRs?

Yes, it's been hard. Hemmed in in the mountains it got to the point at which we were totally cut off from all institutions. Now coming out into the open again means a lot of adapting.

How do you see the process of post-war reconciliation in Guatemala?

Practically little has changed here in Guatemala. This government is from the right, it's not interested in helping the poor. All's that's left for us is to do is to keep on struggling, since that's been our experience.

It was very hard for us to sit down and negotiate land with the government. We don't trust them. You must remember that the war was very difficult for us all, but especially for the women. We lost sons, husbands, we've suffered the most discrimination as indigenous women. We've never been taken into account, and have always been seen as worthless. But in the CPRs we realized that everyone has to take part and can contribute something.

Tell us what happened to you and your family during the war?

It's a really long story. I spent ten years without seeing or hearing any news of my three children. When the repression began my relatives fled to the southern coast along with my baby son, who was 2 months and a few days old, and my two other elder children. I wasn't there at the time when they left, fleeing the army. So I was left behind, alone. All I could do was go off with the others up into the mountains, and become part of the CPR communities. Once there I was elected a community leader. I was in charge of keeping people's spirits up during those difficult times, telling people what to do when the army came along, how to hide, where to run to, all that type of instructions. After that I began working with other women in proposing projects to help form women's groups for weaving, sowing vegetables, as a way of helping out. I've always loved working with people. Now I am bound to this office (in the CPR offices in Guatemala City) but I hope to be able to get out again to work with the people.

And when did you find your children?

It was in 1992 when I came down to the capital, elected to form part of the first mission from the CPRs. I got in touch with organisations helping the displaced people and that's how I tracked them down. My kids were by that time much bigger. They didn't believe that I was their mother and neither could I believe that they were the same children. I had it fixed in my mind that my little one was still a baby, just as I had left him, but now he's grown up.

Finding them was a moment of happiness and sadness for us all. They'd all been told that I was dead. My father and uncles had been kidnapped and killed by the army, eight of them in all. So my relatives didn't expect to see me still alive. When I turned up it was as if I'd been born again for hem. We laughed and laughed until we cried with joy."