Guatemala

"As a church, we collectively and responsibly assumed the task of breaking the silence that thousands of war victims have kept for years. We opened up the possibility for them to speak, to have their say, to tell their stories of suffering and pain, so they might feel liberated from the burden that has been weighing down on them for so many years." With these words, on April 24, 1998, Bishop Juan Gerardi, coordinator of the Human Rights Office of the Archdiocese of Guatemala, released an historic study of human rights abuses in Guatemala, the work of the church's Recovery of Historical Memory project. Two days later, Bishop Gerardi was murdered. Guatemala: Never Again! is the abridged English translation of the original four-volume reoport. It alternates graphic eyewitness testimony with conclusions about the origins, nature, and impace of the devastating violence waged against Guatemalans by their government from the 1970's to the 1990s's.