instrumental in the decipherment of Maya hieroglyphics, and this was the first opportunity for the scholar to visit the lands and sites of the former Maya civilization. Then on 1 December, a troop of soldiers massacred 24 campesinos in Santiago Atitlán in the department of Sololá. In the resulting outcry, the US suspended military aid to Guatemala. Despite having supported the previous coups that lead to human rights abuses in the countryside, President Cerezo claims to have stopped the massacre himself. Post-presidency In 1991 Cerezo became a deputy in the Central American Parliament in its first five-year term. He was accused of hiding behind the immunity conferred here and in his role as ex-President in order to avoid a variety of charges, including fraud in the buying of a Jordanian island, the covering up of the murder of Myrna Mack Chang and the concession of a large piece of land to a conservation group owned by Cerezo's son Marco Vinicio Cerezo Blandón. In the 1999 elections, the first for which the DCG did not offer a presidential candidate, Cerezo won one of the two National Congress seats gained by his party. He was re-elected to Congress for the 2004-08 period in the November 2003 election, this time as the DCG's sole deputy. At the 2007 election Cerezo lost his seat in Congress and his party gained no seats. His son, also named Vinicio Cerezo, ran for president but received less than 1% of the vote. Vinicio Cerezo is currently building an NGO (nongovernmental organization) named Esquipulas after Esquipulas Procedure for a firm and lasting peace and a new Esquipulas conference called Esquipulas III (to follow the previous Esquipulas I and II) to further the integration of Central America, directed by Olinda Salguero. He also is a political consultant. His appointment as Secretary General of the Central America Integration System (SICA) was announced on 29 June 2017, during the 49th gathering in San Jose, Costa Rica. He was named Peace Ambassador by the Guatemala Government on 7 August 2017, in the anniversary of the Esquipulas II agreements. References External links Biography by CIDOB (in Spanish) Congressional web page Crisis de Gobernabilidad 1a. Fase: Perspectiva Política, New Media, Francisco Marroquín University Presidents of Guatemala Members of the Congress of Guatemala People of the Guatemalan Civil War 1942 births Living people People from Guatemala City Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala alumni 20th-century