Guatemalan Civil War Research Paper

Insurgencies during the Guatemalan Civil War
Guatemala is made up of 13 million people, the second largest country next to El Salvador in Central America. It has had a long history of violence, political instability, and foreign corporations exploiting the country’s natural and economic resources. There is a large gap in income between the rich and the poor. The indigenous Mayan Indians are the most impoverished people and yet make up the majority of the population. During the colonization period, the Spaniards colonized Guatemala. During this colonization, the indigenous people were being oppressed by the Spaniards. Being a Spanish colony, Guatemala was governed by wealthy landowners. The largest landowner and employer was the United Fruit
It is estimated that around 200 thousand people were killed (Heifer International). One million were homeless and 45 thousand “disappeared” (Odyssey: Latin American Stage). These numbers signify failure of a counterinsurgency because instead of killing the people that were fighting against the government, the counter attacks were placed on civilians. Even though some of the indigenous people were not part of the insurgents, they were still prosecuted because they were “communists.” On the other hand, from the Guatemalan’s point of view, these numbers could be seen as a success because of the amount of leftist insurgents dead. The threats of these guerilla groups were decreasing in the government’s
To this day, many people still do not know what happened to their family and friends when they “disappeared.” Many families were also displaced during the civil war and have yet to come back to the country. More recently, human right’s activist found the secret files from the civil war in an abandoned building thought to be storing explosives. The human rights activists hoped that the Guatemalan government would take steps in dealing with “the legacy of decades of state repression” (Watts). Furthermore, this war shows how the U.S has not changed in its tactics, meaning that when the U.S goes into a country to help, they end up starting a war and then leave the country to deal with it. To this day this is still occurring. An example of that is the Iraq war. The U.S went there during the 1980’s and created and funded the Taliban to rise up against the government for social and economic reform. However, as the years progressed and the U.S vacated the country, the Taliban turned into what it is today. This goes to show that the U.S help is not actually help at all but rather a way of implementing our ways into countries where it may not