Figure 1.--The Guatemalan Civil War may have caused more than 1 million refugees in a country of only 9 million people. Here we see a group of children described as refugees in 1988. They look mmore like students with their teacher.. |
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The Guatemalan Civil War was the longest such conflict in Latin America, but only one of three such conflicts in Central America's Northern Triangle. It occurred at a time that Communism was thought by many to the key to creating a just and prosperous society. And began just as Fidel Castro was establishing his dictarorship in Cuba. Some of the major players were military governments, right-wing vigilante groups, left-wing hit squads, and leftist rebels who after the Cuban Revolution received support from Castro. The civil war lasted 36 years and was mark with a series of atrocities, especially Army actions against Amerindian communities. Right-wing death squads often connected to the Army murdered an estimated 50,000 leftists or perceived leftists and political opponents during the heighth of the conflict in the 1970s. Estimates suggest more than 0.2 million people were killed and may have created 1 million refugees. In the end the Communists and theur left0wing allies failed. And Guatemala was scarred the nightmare of Communist oppression as we see in Cuba, Venezuela, and other countries. The Mainstream media and left le=ning authors and university professors do not like to recount the human tragedies that unfolded in these countries and continue to unfold.
Col. Castillo Armas who President Arbenz diusmissed and the Eisenhower Administration supported began a series of repressive regimes aimed at turning back the clock in Guatemala. He was assassinated. This was essentially the beginning if a civil war. Gen. Ydígoras Fuentes took power (1958). His regime was seen as autocratic by the Arbenz supporters. Junior military officers organized a coup which failed (1960).
The failed 1960 coup plotters went into hiding. They also establied ties with the Castro regime thatbhad seized power in Cuba. This became the nucleus of the left-wing forces that would wage the armed insurrection against the government nearlky 40 years. Four major left-wing groups developed. They included the Guerrilla Army of the Poor (EGP), the Revolutionary Organization of Armed People (ORPA), the Rebel Armed Forces (FAR), and the Guatemalan Labor Party (PGT). They began economic sabotage, targeting primarily government installations. They also began attacking government security forces. These left-wing groumps eventually agreed to unite and form the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) (1982). Right-wing groups also organized. They included the Secret Anti-Communist Army (ESA) and the White Hand (La Mano Blanca). They targeted student activistss, professionals, and peasants suspected of involvement with the left-wing grouos.
President Julio César Méndez Montenegro took office (1966). Under his directioin, the Army launched a major counterinsurgency campaign that largely suceeded in destroying the left-wing guerrilla movement in the countryside. The left-wing grouos refocused their attacks in urban areas, especially Guatemala City. They assasinated important figures, including U.S. Ambassador John Gordon Mein (1968).
A series of military or military-dominated governments followed (1966-82). Tragic actiins occurred. Unfortunately reporting on these actiins is often colored by the author's political orientation. Gen Efraín Ríos Montt , the Christian Democratic Party candidate is believed to have won the 1974 election, but was denied his victory through election fraud. He emerged as a respected figures, but not without his critics.
Ríos Montt's brief presidency was the most deadly period of the 36-year Guatemalan civil warbin which ten of thousands died, the kargest number unarmed indigenous civilians often v=caught in the middle. General Ángel Aníbal Guevara won the next dusputed election (1982) He was , the hand-picked candidate of outgoing President and General Romeo Lucas García. Junior officers stagfed another coup to prevent Guevarra from assuming office. They were convinced that the election was rigged. The coup leaders asked Ríos Montt to arrange the departure of Lucas and Guevara and essentially offered him the presudency. Ríos Montt had retired from both the Army and politics. He had become a lay pastor in the evangelical Protestant Church of the Word--unusual for a politican in a Catholic country. When he delivered his inaugural address, he claimed that his presidency was the 'will of God'. Many belkieved he was backed by Reagan Administration. He acted decisively. He formed a three-member military junta that annulled the 1965 constitution, dissolved Congress, suspended political parties, and cancelled the electoral law. Then after only a few months, Ríos Montt dismissed his junta colleagues and assumed the de facto title of 'President of the Republic'. Guerrilla forces and their leftist allies denounced Ríos Montt. Foi his part, Ríos Montt sought to defeat the guerrillas with a coimbination of military actions and economic reforms--he described his plan as 'rifles and beans'. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops accused Ríos Montt of responsibility for growing militarization of the country and for military actiins against civilians (May 1982). General Ríos Montt was quoted in the American press as telling an audience of indigenous Guatemalans, "If you are with us, we'll feed you; if not, we'll kill you." [Times, July 18, 1982.] The Plan de Sánchez massacre occurred on that very day.
Rios Mott ordered the formation of local civilian defense patrols (PACs) to oppose the the left-wing rebels. Participation was offiucially voluntary, but as it developed rural Guatemalan men (often including boys and the elderly). This seems to have been particularly prevalent in the embattled northwest. Much of the males population had to choose. If they did not sign up for the Givernment PACs they risked vbeing see as guerrillas. The PACs eventually enrolled some 1 million men. Thuswas a majoir factifr in breaking the back of thge rural insugency a secoind time. The Army anf Ríos Montt's PACs recaptured almost all of the territiry that the now united URNG had won. Guerrilla attacks declined, becoming scattered hit-and-run operations. Ríos Montt's victory, hoiwever, was won at huge cost in civilian lives. There were atrocities and killing committed by boith sides. They includes assassinations, summary executions, forced disappearances, and torture of noncombatants. The general consenus is that the great majority of human rights violations were carried out by the Guatemalan military and the PACs which they controlled. Thius included both press reports and respected studiues. [Historical Clarification Commission (CEH) and the Archbishop's Office for Human Rights (ODHAG)].
ODHAG estimated that government forces were responsible for 80 percent of the human rights violations. .
The CEH estimateed that the government were responsible for 93 percent of the violations.
Ríos Montt was unseated by his own Minister of Defense, General Óscar Humberto Mejía Victores (August 8, 1982). He then replaced him as the de facto president of Guatemala. Mejía told the press that he had to act and charged that 'religious fanatics' were abusing their government offiuces. This was an obvious refernces to Rio Montt's Protestant evangelical beliefs. He also charged 'official corruption'. It is likely that Presiudent Carter suspensionj of military aid to the Guatemaln was a factor. Seven people died in the coup. Ríos Montt survived to renter politics and found a political party--the Guatemalan Republic Front. And and to be elected President of Congress in 1995 and again in 2000. General Mejía oversaw a managed return to democracy. This began with election for a Constituent Assembly to draft a democratic constitution (July 1, 1984). It wa by all accounts a free election. The Assembly enbgaged iun 9 months if exgahustive deabte. It was finally approved and went into force immediately.
The level of violence in Central Ameriva attracted considerable internatiinl attention. President Carter was especailly concerned about human rights. And because of the reports of massive human rights abuses in Guatemala, the Carter Administration suspended military aid to the Guatemalan military.
Further attention resuted from the publicatuin of a testiinaial addressing tge ethnic dimenasuins of the conflict. [Menchú] Awareness in the United States of the conflict in Guatemala, and its ethnic dimension, increased with the 1983 publication of the impassioned testimonial account of I, Rigoberta Menchú, a Guatemalan Amer-Indian woman. She was later awarded Nobel Peace Prize for her work in favor of 'broader social justice'. (1992). A book by U.S. anthropologist David Stoll challenged the details in Menchú's book leading to an international controversy (1998). The Nobel Committee rejected tge criuticiusm and insisted thgat it had awarded the Peace Prize based on Menchú's 'uncontested' work promoting human rights and the peace process. As was often the case, the Mains-Stream media simplified the issues involved and only presented one side of the issues. The Guatemalan Amny's abuses were very real and involved lkarge numbers. But the left-wiung rev=belsere not guilt free and they were rarely mentioned. And also never mentiined was how the New T=York Times lionized Fidel Castro as a freedom fighter devoted to democratic reforms. Or how former-Presudenbt Carter helped legitimize Vebezuelan elections that led to the Communist takeover in that country and massive human rights abuses as well as hunger on a huge scale--virtually impossible in an oil ruch country. One important point. While many Latin American military dictatorshiops are today functiining democracirs (Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, and Uruguay), but the Communist dictaorships are lingering articats of totalitarian rule. Another point to ponder is that while we have Asian Tiger economies which have madeenormous economic progress, there are no Tiger econimies in Latin America.
Archbishop's Office for Human Rights (ODHAG). T
Historical Clarification Commission (CEH).
Leonard, Thomas M. and John F. Bratzel. Latin America during World War II (Rowman & Littlefield: 2007).
Leonard, Thomas M. The History of Honduras. (ABC-CLIO: 2011).
Menchú, Rigoberta. I, Rigoberta Menchú (1983. This account was taped in Paris. Her testimony was described as capturing the 'terror and hope of the revolutionary apogee in Central America.' Civil wars was were also raging in El Salvador abd Nicaragua.
New York Times (July 18, 1982).
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