New Guatemalan President Vows to End Guerrilla War

President Jorge Serrano on Monday became the first democratically elected Guatemalan civilian to succeed another, and he promised to fight the country’s economic crisis and to end its long guerrilla war.

“We are seeking total peace and not a simple truce or cease-fire, conscious that the simple absence of conflict does not guarantee peace if the causes that motivated it remain,” Serrano said in his inaugural speech.

Serrano, a 45-year-old engineer and businessman, easily defeated newspaper publisher Jorge Carpio Nicolle in a runoff election Jan. 6. The constitution prohibited outgoing President Vinicio Cerezo Arevalo from seeking a second five-year term.

More than 100,000 people have been killed in fighting and related political violence in Guatemala the past three decades. Along with the endemic violence, economic decline has sharpened in recent years.

Many of the victims of violence are the Indians who make up about half the population but are largely alienated from their compatriots. They work in poverty in their mountain villages or are exploited as farm laborers on large estates.

Serrano headed a government delegation that held peace talks with the guerrilla leaders last year. The talks were inconclusive.