Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti inaugurated one of his personal charity projects, a school for Mayan Indian children on the shores of Lake Atitlan, in central Guatemala.
"This is a donation for our youth and a symbol of Italy's commitment to Guatemala," Pavarotti said at the ceremony Tuesday.
Despite his good intentions — he raised money for the school at the 1999 "Pavarotti and Friends" charity concert in his hometown of Modena, Italy — Guatemala's political tensions marred his visit.
Nobel peace prize laureate Rigoberta Menchu originally was scheduled to accompany Pavarotti at the inauguration 100 miles west of the capital. But she refused to attend because President Alfonso Portillo also was planning to be there.
Portillo's main political ally is former dictator Efrain Rios Montt, whose 1980-82 military regime was blamed for some of the worst atrocities against Guatemalan Indians during the country's 36-year civil war.
Menchu has filed a genocide complaint in international courts against Rios Montt and other former officers.
In the end, Portillo did not attend the ceremony because "he had things to do at the office," his private secretary, Rodrigo Carrillo, told The Associated Press.