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February 3, 1997

Guatemala expert meets the press

By Jennifer McNulty

For Susanne Jonas of Latin American and Latino studies, the recent signing of the Guatemalan peace accords sparked a flood of media inquiries. Jonas has been following the peace talks since they began in 1991, and she is working on a book about the peace process. [photo of susanne jonas]

"This is the end of an era in Latin America," says Jonas, who attended the signing ceremony December 29 at the invitation of the Guatemalan government.

In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Jonas cautioned that Guatemala's fragile peace could be lost if international aid is not made conditional on compliance with the peace accords.

"There are so many lessons about how to make this type of (peace) process work," Jonas said during a recent interview in her office at Merrill. "There has to be a sense that the outside world is watching."

Jonas, who has been writing about Guatemala for 30 years, penned an op-ed for the Christian Science Monitor, did interviews with Mexican and Guatemalan newspapers, including La Jornada, and was the subject of a lengthy profile in El Periodico.

The New York Times, which frequently taps Jonas for insight, quoted her in a story about efforts by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to recruit the Guatemalan army to participate in its drug war. The report was "very disturbing," says Jonas, noting that a major provision of the peace accord requires that the army's role be limited to external defense.

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