Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

222 • GUATEMALAN NATIONAL REVOLUTIONARY UNIONto secure the support of the peasants, with the result that the URNGlost much ground. Certain of these groups, such as ORPA, beganto use the same retaliatory tactics against suspected civilian collaboratorsthat previously had been the hallmark of Guatemala’sstate-sponsored right-wing death squads.After the January 1996 election of Álvaro Arzú Irigoyen, theGuatemalan government moved quickly to establish talks withthe URNG aimed at ending the civil war, returning the rebels tocivilian life, and resettling the hundreds of thousands of Indianpeasants driven from their homes by the civil war. At that timeit was estimated that 100,000 people had been killed, and that40,000 had disappeared, presumably killed by rightists or leftists,and about one million had been displaced out of a population of10.5 million.On 19 October 1996 the government suspended talks with theURNG due to the revelation that the deputy commander of ORPA,Rafael Valdizón Núñez (“Commander Isaias”), had ordered thekidnapping of Olga Alvarado de Novella, the 84-year-old invalidmatriarch of a prominent Guatemalan family, two months earlier.The URNG disavowed Valdizón’s action in late October afterremoving him from his command and apologized to the Alvaradofamily. On 4 November 1996 the URNG ordered a complete cessationof all activities of armed propaganda, and by 10 November1996 talks had resumed. On 11 November 1996 both sides agreedto sign a peace accord on 29 December 1996. Beginning on 4 December1996, the government and the URNG signed three agreementsaimed at ending the fighting, reducing the armed forces, andreintegrating former URNG fighters and displaced peasants backinto Guatemalan civil society. On 18 December 1996 the NationalAssembly passed a comprehensive amnesty law that drew muchcriticism from human rights groups. On 29 December 1996 theprincipal leaders of the URNG and members of the government’sPeace Commission signed the Accord for a Firm and LastingPeace.By March 1997 demobilization of the Guatemalan armed forcesbegan, which were to be reduced from 46,000 to about 40,000 soldierswho were to be redeployed along the borders of the nation.About 3,600 former rebels as well as 1,600 followers were to beresettled in eight camps around the nation. The URNG turned in