A member of the Guatemalan Accompaniment Program spoke at the Memorial Union Friday, relating her experiences as an aide to Guatemalan refugees.

Lisa Jantzen has recently returned to the United States after serving six months in the Guatemalan Accompaniment Program (GAP), a project administered by the National Coordinating Office on Refugees and Displaced of Guatemala.

“The speaker represents improvement in the situation in Guatemala since the United Nations has helped to negotiate a peace process,” said Wayne Osborn, associate professor of history.

The GAP was formed in response to the violence committed by the Guatemalan government army and civil patrol during their 35-year civil war.

Since 1978, about 200,000 people have disappeared or have been murdered. Many refugees have been tortured, and women and children have been raped.

Peace accords between the rebel guerrillas and the Guatemalan government were signed in late 1996 and early 1997; however, threats and attacks on the Guatemalans continue as they return to reclaim their homelands or settle in new places from refugee camps in Mexico.

Although the local civil patrols were officially disbanded, no procedures were instituted to reclaim their weapons, and no records exist as to how many weapons were given to the civil patrols or who has them.

“Refugees are returning now to their homes. The speaker is helping that reinsertion to occur peacefully and successfully,” Osborn said.

Jantzen served as an accompanier in the refugee community of Nuevo Mexico in western Guatemala, where she lived from December 1996-June 1997.

The presence of an international accompanier in contact with people in the U.S. and other countries outside Guatemala is greatly appreciated by the returned refugees as a means of protecting their civil rights.

Jantzen’s speech was hosted by the Iowa State United Nations Association.