GUATEMALA CITY, March 10: Mayan leaders will spiritually ‘cleanse’ ancient ruins in Guatemala after a visit by US President George W. Bush, unpopular here because of foreign policies going back to Central America’s civil wars.

The leaders said they would hold a spiritual ceremony to restore “peace and harmony” at the Mayan ruins of Iximche after President Bush tours the site on Monday.

“No, Mr Bush, you cannot trample and degrade the memory of our ancestors,” said indigenous leader Rodolfo Pocop during a press conference. “This is not your ranch in Texas.”

President Bush will arrive on Sunday night in Guatemala, his second-to-last stop on a five-country tour of Latin America, where his approval ratings are low. His visit sparked violent protests in Brazil and Colombia. Social groups are organising marches against his visit to Guatemala.

On Friday, some 150 student protesters blocked off a street in Guatemala City near two US fast food outlets to burn an American flag and set off firecrackers.

“We’ve burned this flag for what the Yankee did all over the world. We remember the CIA’s policy in our country, which promoted scorched-earth policies and the bloodshed of our people,” the protest leader shouted, standing on a car.

The CIA helped overthrow a democratically elected socialist government in Guatemala in 1954 and US-backed troops destroyed entire Mayan villages in a counter-insurgency campaign at the peak of Guatemala’s 1960-96 civil war.

US involvement in the war, which left nearly a quarter of a million people dead or missing, makes Bush’s presence in Guatemala offensive to the nation’s ethnic Mayan people, youth leader Jorge Morales Toj said.—Reuters