Quezada became a national hero by helping to bring to an end the civil war that devastated his country for 36 years.[1][4] He led two organizations that played important roles in forming a peace agreement: the National Reconciliation Commission, which he headed from 1987 to 1993, and the Assembly of the Civil Society, which he headed from 1994 to 1996.[4] He was also the official conciliator between the government and the guerrillas of the National Revolutionary Unit (1990–1994). His assistant in the peace process, Bishop Juan Gerardi, was murdered in April 1998.[1]
His resignation was accepted by Pope Benedict XVI on 4 October 2010, when he was succeeded as Metropolitan Archbishop of Guatemala by Archbishop Oscar Julio Vian Morales, S.D.B., who until then had been Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Altos, Quetzaltenango-Totonicapan, also in Guatemala. Cardinal Quezada was then referred to as Archbishop Emeritus of the see. On 8 March 1992, he reached age 80 and ceased to be a cardinal elector.[citation needed]
Death
Cardinal Quezada Toruño died the morning of 4 June 2012 at a private hospital in Guatemala City due to complications of a bowel obstruction.[5]