36.5.2: The Guatemalan Civil War

The Guatemalan Civil War took place from 1960 to 1996. It was fought between the government of Guatemala and various leftist rebel groups supported chiefly by ethnic Maya indigenous people and Ladino peasants, who together make up the rural poor. The government forces of Guatemala have been condemned for committing genocide against the Maya population of Guatemala during the civil war and for widespread human rights violations against civilians.

Background

After the 1871 revolution, the Liberal government of Justo Rufino Barrios escalated coffee production in Guatemala, which required much land and many workers. To support these needs, Barrios established the Settler Rule Book, which forced the native population work for low wages for Criollo and German settler landowners. Barrios also confiscated the native population’s land, which had been protected during Spanish rule and the Conservative government of Rafael Carrera. Barrios redistributed the confiscated land to his Liberal friends, who in turn became important landowners.

Societal Structure

Guatemalan society was composed of three sharply defined classes throughout this period. Criollos were a minority group who descended from both the ancient families of the Spaniards that conquered Central America and the Indians who had been conquered by the Spaniards. As of the 1920s, the Criollos led the country both politically and intellectually by virtue of their education, which, although poor by European standards of the time, remained superior to that of the rest of the people in the country. That was partially because Criollo families controlled or owned most of the cultivated areas of Guatemala and were the only group allowed in either of the main political parties. The Guatemalan middle class, Ladinos, was composed of people with heritage from the native and black populations as well as Criollos. Ladinos held almost no political power in the 1920s and made up the bulk of artisans, storekeepers, tradesmen, and minor officials. In the eastern part of the country, many Ladinos were agricultural laborers.

The majority of the Guatemalan population was composed of indigenous peoples referred to as Indians. Many had no formal education and served as soldiers or agricultural workers. Within the indigenous population were further categories: “Mozos colonos” settled on plantations and were given a small piece of land to cultivate on their own in return for their work on the plantation itself, while “mozos jornaleros” were day-laborers who were contracted to work for certain periods of time and paid a daily wage in return.

Both of these categories typically worked to pay off debts to higher class individuals, who in turn encouraged the assumption of further debt on the part of the indigenous person. Often, due to the large amount of debt and small amount of pay, a mozo essentially became an indentured servant to the owner of their debt. If a mozo refused to work or attempted to run away, the owner of their debt could have them pursued and even imprisoned. Nonetheless, some indigenous people remained independent tillers, who lived in remote provinces and survived by growing a subsistence crop of maize, beans, or wheat. Occasionally a small margin of their crop would be available for sale in town markets, but the travel to get to these markets could be arduous.

Initial Phases of the Civil War

Democratic elections during the Guatemalan Revolution in 1944 and 1951 brought popular leftist governments to power, but a United States backed coup d’état in 1954 installed the military regime of Carlos Castillo Armas, followed by a series of conservative military dictators. On November 13, 1960, a group of left-wing junior military officers from the national military academy led a failed revolt against the autocratic government of General Ydigoras Fuentes, who usurped power in 1958 following the assassination of incumbent Armas. The surviving officers fled into the hills of eastern Guatemala and later established communication with the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. By 1962, those surviving officers had established an insurgent movement known as the MR-13 (Movimiento Revolucionario 13 Noviembre), named after the date of the initial officers’ revolt. Through the early phase of the conflict, the MR-13 was a principal component of the insurgent movement in Guatemala.

The MR-13 later initiated contact with the outlawed PGT (Guatemalan Labour Party), composed and led by middle-class intellectuals and students, and a student organization called the Movimiento 12 de Abril (April 12 Movement). These groups merged into an coalition guerrilla organization called the Rebel Armed Forces (FAR) in December 1962. Also affiliated with the FAR was the FGEI (Edgar Ibarra Guerrilla Front). The MR-13, PGT, and FGEI each operated in different parts of the country as three separate “frentes” (fronts). The MR-13 established itself in the mostly Ladino departments of Izabal and Zacapa. The FGEI established itself in Sierra de las Minas, and the PGT operated as an urban guerrilla front. Each of these three “frentes” (comprising no more than 500 combatants) was led by former members of the 1960 army revolt who has been trained in counterinsurgency warfare by the United States.

As well as fighting between government forces and rebel groups, the conflict included a large-scale, coordinated campaign of one-sided violence by the Guatemalan state against the civilian population from the mid-1960s onward. The military intelligence services (G2 or S2) and an affiliated intelligence organization known as La Regional or Archivo, headquartered in an annex of the presidential palace, were responsible for coordinating killings and “disappearances” of opponents of the state, suspected insurgents, and those deemed by the intelligence services to be collaborators. The Guatemalan state was the first in Latin America to engage in widespread use of forced disappearances against its opposition, with the number of disappeared estimated at between 40,000 and 50,000 from 1966 until the end of the war. In rural areas where the insurgency maintained its strongholds, the repression amounted to wholesale slaughter of the peasantry and massacres of entire villages, starting in Izabal and Zacapa (1966–68) and later in the predominantly Mayan western highlands. In the early 1980s, the killings reached the scale of genocide.

Exhumation in the Ixil triangle in Guatemala: Queqchí people carrying their loved one’s remains after an exhumation in Cambayal in Alta Verapaz department, Guatemala in February 2012. Since 1997, the Centre of Forensic Anthropology and Applied Sciences (CAFCA) has been helping to heal the deep wounds caused by Guatemala’s internal conflict.

Domination by Military Rulers

In 1970, Colonel Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio became the first of a series of military dictators representing the Institutional Democratic Party, or PID. The PID dominated Guatemalan politics for 12 years via electoral fraud favoring two of Arana’s proteges: General Kjell Eugenio Laugerud Garcia in 1974 and General Romeo Lucas Garcia in 1978. Also during the 1970s, continuing social discontent gave rise to an insurgency among large populations of indigenous people and peasants, who traditionally bore the brunt of unequal land tenure.The PID lost its grip on Guatemalan politics when General Efraín Ríos Montt, together with a group of junior army officers, seized power in a military coup on March 23, 1982. During the 1980s, the Guatemalan military assumed almost absolute government power for five years. It successfully infiltrated and eliminated enemies in every socio-political institution of the nation, including the political, social, and intellectual classes. In the final stage of the civil war, the military developed a parallel, semi-visible, low profile, but high-effect, control of Guatemala’s national life.

Mejia Victores Regime and Democratic Transition

Ríos Montt was deposed on August 8, 1983, by his own Minister of Defense, General Óscar Humberto Mejía Victores. Mejía Victores became de facto president and justified the coup by characterizing Montt’s regime as corrupt and its officials as abusing their positions of power within the government. Montt remained in politics, founding the Guatemalan Republican Front party in 1989. He was elected President of Congress in 1995 and 2000. By the time Mejia Victores assumed power, the counterinsurgency under Lucas Garcia and Montt had largely succeeded in its objective of detaching the insurgency from its civilian support base. Additionally, G2 had infiltrated most political institutions, eradicating opponents in the government through terror and selective assassinations. The counterinsurgency program had militarized Guatemalan society, creating a fearful atmosphere that suppressed most public agitation and insurgency. The military had consolidated its power in virtually all sectors of society.

Due to international pressure as well as pressure from other Latin American nations, Mejía Victores allowed a gradual return to democracy in Guatemala. On July 1, 1984, an election was held for representatives to a Constituent Assembly to draft a democratic constitution. On May 30, 1985, the Constituent Assembly finished drafting a new constitution, which took effect immediately. General elections were scheduled and civilian candidate Vinicio Cerezo was elected as president. The gradual revival of democracy did not end the disappearances and death squad killings, however, as extrajudicial state violence had become an integral part of the political culture.

The Democratic Era

Cerezo Administration

Vinicio Cerezo, a civilian politician and the presidential candidate of the Guatemalan Christian Democracy, won the first election held under the new constitution with almost 70% of the vote. Upon its inauguration in January 1986, President Cerezo’s civilian government announced that its top priorities would be to end the political violence and establish rule of law. Reforms included new laws of habeas corpus and amparo (court-ordered protection), the creation of a legislative human rights committee, and the establishment in 1987 of the Office of Human Rights Ombudsman. The Supreme Court also embarked on a series of reforms to fight corruption and improve legal system efficiency.

With Cerezo’s election, the military moved away from governing and returned to the more traditional role of providing internal security, specifically by fighting armed insurgents. The first two years of Cerezo’s administration were characterized by a stable economy and a marked decrease in political violence. Dissatisfied military personnel made coup attempts in May 1988 and May 1989, but military leadership supported the constitutional order. The government was heavily criticized for its unwillingness to investigate or prosecute cases of human rights violations, however.

Presidential and congressional elections were held on November 11, 1990. After the second-round ballot, Jorge Antonio Serrano Elías was inaugurated on January 14, 1991, completing the first transition from one democratically elected civilian government to another. Because his Movement of Solidarity Action (MAS) Party gained only 18 of 116 seats in Congress, Serrano entered into a tenuous alliance with the Christian Democrats and the National Union of the Center (UCN).

Serrano Administration

The Serrano administration’s record was mixed. It had some success in consolidating civilian control over the army, replacing a number of senior officers and persuading the military to participate in peace talks with the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity, or URNG, an umbrella organization representing leftist beliefs among the Guatemalan people, particularly the poor. He took the politically unpopular step of recognizing the sovereignty of Belize, which until then was officially though fruitlessly claimed by Guatemala. The Serrano government reversed the economic slump it inherited, reducing inflation and creating real growth. Then on May 25, 1993, Serrano illegally dissolved Congress and the Supreme Court and attempted to restrict civil freedoms, allegedly in order to fight corruption. The auto-coup failed due to the unified efforts of most elements of Guatemalan society to protest Serrano’s actions, international pressure, and the army’s enforcement of the decisions of the Court of Constitutionality, which ruled against the attempted takeover.

Subsequently, Serrano fled the country and pursuant to the provisions of the 1985 constitution, the Guatemalan Congress elected the Human Rights Ombudsman, Alfonso Guillermo de León Marroquín, to complete Serrano’s presidential term as of June 5, 1993. De Leon was not a member of any political party and lacked a political base. Nonetheless, he enjoyed strong popular support. During his time in office, he launched an ambitious anti-corruption campaign within Congress and the Supreme Court, demanding the resignations of all members of the two bodies.

Renewed Peace Process (1994 to 1996)

Under de Leon, the peace process, now brokered by the United Nations, took on new life. The government and the URNG signed agreements on human rights (March 1994), resettlement of displaced persons (June 1994), historical clarification (June 1994), and indigenous rights (March 1995). They also made significant progress on a socioeconomic and agrarian agreement.

National elections for president, Congress, and municipal offices were held in November 1995. With almost 20 parties competing in the first round, the presidential election came down to a January 7, 1996, run-off in which National Advancement Party (PAN) candidate Álvaro Arzú Irigoyen defeated Alfonso Portillo Cabrera of the Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG) by just over two percent of the vote. Arzú won because of his strength in Guatemala City, where he previously served as mayor, and in the surrounding urban area. Portillo won all of the rural departments except Petén. Under the Arzú administration, peace negotiations were concluded, and the government and URNG, which became a legal party, signed peace accords ending the 36-year internal conflict in December 1996. The General Secretary of the URNG, Comandante Rolando Morán, and President Álvaro Arzú jointly received the UNESCO Peace Prize for their efforts to end the civil war and attain the peace agreement. The United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1094 on January 20, 1997, deploying military observers to Guatemala to monitor the implementation of the peace agreements.

Legal Charges of Crimes Against Humanity

In total, an estimated 200,000 civilians were killed or “disappeared” during the conflict, most at the hands of the military, police, and intelligence services. Victims of the repression included indigenous activists, suspected government opponents, returning refugees, critical academics, students, left-leaning politicians, trade unionists, religious workers, journalists, and street children. The “Comisión para el Esclarecimiento Histórico” has estimated that 93% of the violence committed during the conflict was carried out by government forces and 3% by guerrillas. In 2009, Guatemalan courts sentenced the first person to be convicted of the crime of ordering forced disappearances, Felipe Cusanero. This was followed by the 2013 trial of former president Montt for the killing and disappearances of more than 1,700 indigenous Ixil Maya during his 1982-83 rule. The accusations of genocide derived from the “Memoria del Silencio” report written by the UN-appointed Commission for Historical Clarification, which held that genocide could have occurred in Quiché between 1981 and 1983.

The first former head of state to be tried for genocide by his own country’s judicial system, Montt was found guilty the day following the conclusion of his trial and sentenced to 80 years in prison. A few days later, however, the sentence was reversed and the trial was rescheduled due to alleged judicial anomalies. The trial began again in 2015. The court decided, due to his alleged senility, that a closed door trial would resume in January 2016, and that if Montt were found guilty, a jail sentence would be precluded given his health condition.

Ex-General Efrain Rios Montt testifying during his trial on March 19, 2013: Montt declared himself innocent: “I am innocent. I never had the intention of destroying any national ethnic group. My role as head of State was specifically to bring the nation back on track, after it had gone astray.”

Attributions

• The Guatemalan Civil War
  • “Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guatemalan_National_Revolutionary_Unity. Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0.
  • “Guatemalan Civil War.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guatemalan_Civil_War. Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0.
  • “Efrain Rios Montt: Legal proceedings charging Ríos Montt with crimes against humanity.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efra%C3%ADn_R%C3%ADos_Montt#Legal_proceedings_charging_R.C3.ADos_Montt_with_crimes_against_humanity. Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0.
  • “Genocide.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide. Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0.
  • “Ex_General_Efrain_Rios_Montt_testifying_during_the_trial.jpg.” https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ex_General_Efrain_Rios_Montt_testifying_during_the_trial.jpg. Wikimedia Commons CC BY 2.0.
  • “Exhumation_in_the_ixil_triangle_in_Guatemala.jpg.” https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Exhumation_in_the_ixil_triangle_in_Guatemala.jpg. Wikimedia Commons CC BY 2.0.