How Did The Mayan Genocide Occur In The Early 1980s

Between 1980 into the mid 1980s… the genocide of the Maya occurred within the city of modern Guatemala (p.355). It was during this time that the Mayan society were forced to leave their home in the altiplano (the highlands—due to an earthquake) and had to begin to assimilate with the rest of the Guatemala population. During this time, the Fuerzas Armadas Rebeldes (FAR) ladino organization extended their communist influence to those Mayas assosciated with the highlands. Therefore because of their emphasis upon the FAR and towards enabling their own highland culture within city of Guatemala that initially caused the Guatemalan city, under the leadership of General Benedicto Lucas, to initiate a war that would deprive the communist forces of their
At the root of this system of institutionalized violence lay the fear of an indigenous uprising “coming down from the highlands”; the uprising of the early 1980s came closer than any other experience to realizing that great fear” (p.364). During this time, although the genocide had concluded…the ambition of ridding out the communist within the Mayan society was still continuing, especially from 1983-1990s. It was because of this that the Mayas were forced: to serve in the PACS (the self-defense patrol), to live in modern villages under military control, and to be overseen by the militarily administration in a constant effort to establish martial law which was all supervised by the General Victores. It was during this effort that the PACS were forced to kill villagers, the army used the essence of hunger to establish social control, and the ladino army felt it had the rights to control the Maya civilization of the highlands. Therefore… although the genocide itself was concluded…the efforts to control the Mayan society continued until 1990 when the war finally was concluded through the Guatemalan Peace