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This author of this article is a "travel writing" contest runner-up. This author went into Guatemala and wrote about their experiences there. They wrote this article with a series of pictures and personal stories sharing the life of Guatemala and the author's interactions with the lives of the people after the war. I thought this was an interesting resource because it not only had visuals of the idea of "life after war," but also because it shared a more personal look (instead of a reporter's interpretation).

Based in and around Guatemala City, La Fraternindad Christiana de Guatemala recently constructed a new church with a 7,000 person amphitheater, two stages, and 1,000 car parking lot. Over half of Guatemala's population define themselves as evangelical Christians, and La Fraternindad Christiana is one of the largest Evangelical organizations in Latin America.

Thousands of disappearances have occurred in Guatemala during the conflict. This article focuses on a woman who lost four family members in only a week, and has no idea where they are. This story is common among the Guatemalan peoples. An archive of documents has been found in an abandoned police building in Guatemala City. There are millions of documents, and once they are sorted through, might provide some sort of answers. Many people have not heard the whereabouts of their family members in over thirty years.

This article describes the distinct differences between the main square of Guatemala City of 1986 and 2006. In 1986 Guatemala was "just emerging from a ghastly civil war which claimed as many as 200,000 victims, the vast majority of them killed or forcibly abducted by the state security forces". In 2006, when the reporter traveled to Guatemala, he discovered a much more peaceful environment. As Guatemalans comes to terms with the violence that it has endured for the past three generations, they do not forget about their suffering. In the main square are 12 pillars that are engraved with the names of all those known to have died during the years civil conflict.

This article focuses on the newly found Ancient Maya site found in the city of EL MIrador. Although it is an amazing discovery-the land is not properly protected. It is highly contested by many groups including drug cartels.

This article discusses the notion of poverty and violence within the Guatemalan society. Currently, there are at least 900,000 residents, all above the age of 60 who are living on the dirty, impoverished streets of Guatemalan cities. Although the government has proposed solutions to the overwhelming amount of poverty and economic turmoil, there has been little progress in recent years.

This site reports a recent study of the living standards for Guatemalans. In the past few years, the rates of poverty, crime, and malnutrition have skyrocketed alarmingly. The hardest hit are the elderly and the children. In order to combat this, Guatemala is instituting benefit programs to give welfare to the elderly.

This site addresses how drug and alcohol abuse in Latin America is widespread among the urban poor, and how the two contribute to daily violence. In poor neighborhoods in the Colombian cities of Medellín and Bogotá, approximately half of the population uses drugs--mainly marijuana, followed by cocaine and amphetamines. It is believed that heavy drinking in Guatemala is associated with Mayans, indigenous people trapped in poverty by discrimination and armed conflict.

In Guatemala City during the weekend of October 19, 2009, vicious attacks were carried out against prison guards that left two officers dead and one wounded. Five suspects have already been detained, however, there have been at least 10 other attacks since September that has left 7 people dead and 8 wounded. It is evident that this violence will continue unless there are drastic changes made. Samuel Logan, an expert on Lain American gangs, says that this prison, which holds some of the worst criminals of their time, can be broken up into two criminal elements: drug lords that deal with large exports and street gangs that sell drugs on a local level. However, these problems exist because the drug trades that did on the outside continue once they are put into prison. The attacks are a result of finding the corrupted officers as well as the intensified rules of what privileges well-behaved inmates are able to achieve, such as cell phone use. Officials continue to try and cut down the attacks and violence that happens against prison guards.