By Patricia Pernas

Guatemala City, Jun 1 (EFE).– In Guatemala, one of the world’s most violent countries, not even the dead can rest in peace.

Open coffins and tombs are common sights in Guatemala City’s General Cemetery.

“Move to another neighborhood,” “the final goodbye,” “grow grass” and “go to a better life” are all phrases used to express in words what is inevitable: death.

But the biological certainty of death does not mean that all Guatemalans will be able to “rest in peace and forever.”

The scene at Guatemala City’s General Cemetery, declared a National Cultural Heritage Site, is one of desolation.

While strolling the cemetery’s nearly 24 hectares (60 acres), visitors find walkways covered by weeds and collapsing vaults, a sign of the indifference and negligence at a place where unwelcome guests thrive: vultures ruling over the land of remembrance.

Recently, a landslide swept about 50 tombs downhill and the human remains are now lying in the municipal landfill on a side of the cemetery.

Since the first sinkhole appeared in 2010, some 170 tombs have collapsed and although some remains have been recovered, most of them were lost in a pile of mud and refuse at the Guatemala City municipal dumps in the area.

“These are not animals, they are human beings,” Edgard Estuardo, a young man with nine relatives buried in the collapsed area, said, adding that action was needed to keep the remains from ending up in the landfill.

Maria Patricia buried her daughter three months ago in the affected area and no one warned her about it.

She has repeatedly asked that the girl’s remains be moved somewhere else, but her request was denied because officials have warned people not to approach the area.

The National Emergency Management Office, or Conred, warned about the unstable conditions in 2010 and recommended the establishment of a 30-meter (90-foot) safety area, mitigation measures to prevent further landslides and drainage control.

“None of the recommendations has been considered,” Conred spokesman David de Leon said, adding that the agency was awaiting a report updating the analysis.

Miguel Garcia Granados, the cemetery’s manager, told Efe he was “waiting for responses” from officials and said the cemetery could not deal with the situation because its budget was limited. EFE