Page 67 - tesis

proportions earlier, following the overthrow of the Arbenz government\u2019 (Cited by Wilson, 1998: 150)\u000Ac. Evangelicals in Guatemala\u2019s Democracy (1986-2006)\u000AFrom the government of Vinicio Cerezo (1986-1989) the country began to tread a pathway towards democracy supported by the different national bodies within the context of the armed conflict. The peace process began in a decade which produced economic losses to Guatemala\u2019s economy. During this period the Evangelical churches continued to expand in cities and in the rural areas. In 2003 the Evangelical population reached about 25 per cent of the population and in 2008 there are some 22,000 churches in all the country.\u000A(1) The work among indigenous people\u000AFrom Colonial times indigenous peoples were badly treated, exploited and considered as second class citizens. Their fight for survival and betterment has been a constant battle during Guatemala\u2019s history.21 The sociologist Poitevin affirms that the Catholic Church until a few years ago did not give much attention to the rural indigenous people. (1989: 125). Within this context, Garrard-Burnett points out that the missionaries from the historic churches anticipating Weber\u2019s equation on Protestantism, individualism and capitalism, argued that the assimilation of the indigenous groups into society would better their lives as individuals and strengthen the country as a whole (1990: 29-30). So, during the first half of the twentieth century historic church missionaries, worked for the conversion to the Evangelical faith.\u000ABible translation was one of the strategies used to take the gospel and progress to these communities. The Central American Mission in Guatemala translated four of the six bibles translated into Mayan languages. \u2018This task brought the good news of the gospel of\u000A21 Garrard-Burnett notes that the liberals from the time of Justo Rufino Barrios sought my all means to assimilate indigenous people into society widely. The liberals considered their existence as an anachronism in a developing state, they sought to free their lands for coffee plantations and mould the indigenous population into a working class whose man power would be available for agricultures enterprises (1990: 29- 30).\u000A54\u000A