Mayan Civil War Research Paper
The Guatemalan Civil War and its role with Mayan Genocide
After researching the Guatemalan Civil War, and the circumstances in the country leading up to the genocide of Mayan Indians, it is clear that this unfortunate event was preventable. A war that began because of economic and political inequality. The Guatemalan Civil War triggered more than 200,000 casualties, 83 percent of those deaths being Mayan Indians, throughout the span of 36 years. (Miller, 2011). The fall of the Mayans came a while before the actual Guatemalan Civil War and the Spanish conquest, but there is little to no records that prove what happened, so the unknown will be left alone.
In 1524, Spanish conquistadores lead by Pedro de Alvarado came to present-day Guatemala. …show more content…
To a point where massacres, assassinations, tortures, and rapes were daily life for the victims. More than 100,000 women were raped within the Civil War period. The supposed idea was that if you destroy the women, then the population goes down as well. A very cold-blooded way to try and eliminate the Mayans (de Pablo, Zurita, & Tremlett Giles, 2011). Their buildings and crops were demolished and set ablaze. They polluted their water supplies. They violated sacred places and cultural symbols. Even Catholic priests and nuns faced violence because they believed in the rights of the Mayan people. The part that makes this even more wretched is that the U.S. supported these acts as part of their anti-Communist policies (Genocide in the Ixil Triangle, n.d.)
The Mayans received little to no support. The URNG's (National Guatemalan Revolutionary Unit) guerrillas, the main challengers of the government, could not aid the Mayan Indians. For the reason that there were not enough of them. Correspondingly, there was no real intimidation factor for the government, whose immense and ruthless campaign was largely focused against the Mayan Indians. “Of the human rights violations recorded, the State and the Army were responsible for 93%, the guerrillas for 3% [of the violations committed].” The last 4% was unresolved …show more content…
Possibly the most known massacre was the Dos Erres killings, where 250 villagers were murdered. Four former soldiers were sentenced to more than 6,000 years in prison in 2010. A fifth was sentenced to the same amount the following year (Quinones, 2012). Gen. Efraín Ríos Montt, whom ruled during the bloodiest period of the Guatemalan Civil War was found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity. He was sentenced to 80 years in jail, i.e., he was 86 at the time of his trial. Antonio Cuba, a leader of the Mayan survivors’ group, who was 11 when soldiers stormed his village and killed 95 men said, “We showed them that we’re not communists.” “We are simply villagers.” (Malkin, Former Leader of Guatemala Is Guilty of Genocide Against Mayan Group,
After researching the Guatemalan Civil War, and the circumstances in the country leading up to the genocide of Mayan Indians, it is clear that this unfortunate event was preventable. A war that began because of economic and political inequality. The Guatemalan Civil War triggered more than 200,000 casualties, 83 percent of those deaths being Mayan Indians, throughout the span of 36 years. (Miller, 2011). The fall of the Mayans came a while before the actual Guatemalan Civil War and the Spanish conquest, but there is little to no records that prove what happened, so the unknown will be left alone.
In 1524, Spanish conquistadores lead by Pedro de Alvarado came to present-day Guatemala. …show more content…
To a point where massacres, assassinations, tortures, and rapes were daily life for the victims. More than 100,000 women were raped within the Civil War period. The supposed idea was that if you destroy the women, then the population goes down as well. A very cold-blooded way to try and eliminate the Mayans (de Pablo, Zurita, & Tremlett Giles, 2011). Their buildings and crops were demolished and set ablaze. They polluted their water supplies. They violated sacred places and cultural symbols. Even Catholic priests and nuns faced violence because they believed in the rights of the Mayan people. The part that makes this even more wretched is that the U.S. supported these acts as part of their anti-Communist policies (Genocide in the Ixil Triangle, n.d.)
The Mayans received little to no support. The URNG's (National Guatemalan Revolutionary Unit) guerrillas, the main challengers of the government, could not aid the Mayan Indians. For the reason that there were not enough of them. Correspondingly, there was no real intimidation factor for the government, whose immense and ruthless campaign was largely focused against the Mayan Indians. “Of the human rights violations recorded, the State and the Army were responsible for 93%, the guerrillas for 3% [of the violations committed].” The last 4% was unresolved …show more content…
Possibly the most known massacre was the Dos Erres killings, where 250 villagers were murdered. Four former soldiers were sentenced to more than 6,000 years in prison in 2010. A fifth was sentenced to the same amount the following year (Quinones, 2012). Gen. Efraín Ríos Montt, whom ruled during the bloodiest period of the Guatemalan Civil War was found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity. He was sentenced to 80 years in jail, i.e., he was 86 at the time of his trial. Antonio Cuba, a leader of the Mayan survivors’ group, who was 11 when soldiers stormed his village and killed 95 men said, “We showed them that we’re not communists.” “We are simply villagers.” (Malkin, Former Leader of Guatemala Is Guilty of Genocide Against Mayan Group,