Nobel winner Menchu hails Guatemala's 'great awakening'
Nobel winner Menchu hails Guatemala's 'great awakening'
By Katell Abiven (AFP) 1 hour ago.
Guatemalan Nobel laureate Rigoberta Menchu sees the unprecedented protests calling for the ouster of President Otto Perez as a historic moment for a country long torn by violence, poverty and inequality.
Speaking just before Guatemala's Congress voted Tuesday to strip Perez of his immunity over allegations of massive corruption -- the first such decision in the Central American country's history -- Menchu told AFP the protests represent "a great awakening of the people."
Menchu, an indigenous activist persecuted by the regime during Guatemala's long civil war (1960-1996), won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992 for her fight for social justice and reconciliation between the country's ethnic and cultural groups.
The 56-year-old Quiche Mayan leader is a long-time critic of Perez, a conservative ex-general who has refused to stand down before his term ends on January 14.
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