Esquipulas

Esquipulas is a city of the Guatemala in the Département of Chiquimula founded between 1560 and 1570.

Distributed on approximately 500 km ², the city is regarded as the central-American capital of the faith for its Basilique which shelters the black sanctuary of Christ around whose many pilgrimages proceed.

But Esquipulas is also in the center of most of the recent process of pacification of the Central America, reason for which the city is often called the " open door towards the paix".

Religious tradition

Several legends run around the statue of Christ black ordered in 1594 to the Portuguese sculptor Quirio Cataño.

One affirms that the statue was cut at the clear wood origin. Its black color would be the result of its years of exposure to smoke of incense and candles as to the hands of faithful coming to venerate it in concerning.

The other evokes the possibility of a statue cut right from the start out of dark wood of color for better resembling the skin color of the Indians chortis, people of origin of the area.

Lastly, the tradition of pilgrimage would originate in the voyage carried out by the inhabitants of Esquipulas in 1594 to seek and bring back the statue: throughout the return voyage, those which saw passing the statue would have been impressed by its beauty and would have required so that it spend at least a night near them. The statue finally was delivered to Esquipulas on March 9th, 1952.

Process of Esquipulas

The Seventies and Eighties were the theater of important conflicts in Central America. In 1986, Oscar Arias Sánchez reaches the capacity with the Costa Rica. He is the initiator of the peace process known under the name " process of Esquipulas" for which it received in 1987 the Nobel Prize of Peace.

On May 24th and 25th 1986, the five presidents of Central America, brought together in Esquipulas, sign the declaration of Esquipulas jointly (also known under the name of Esquipulas I).

This declaration, history for the area, launches the peace process which will succeed one year later, on August 7th, 1987, with the peace agreements of Esquipulas, also known under the name of Esquipulas II, and which mark the beginning of long walk towards the peace of the isthmus central-American.

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