When did the Guatemalan Civil War start and end?
The Guatemalan Civil War began on the 13th of November 1960 and ended in 1996. It lasted thirty-six years, making it one of the longest armed conflicts in Latin American history.
Questions about Guatemalan Civil War
Short answers, pulled from the story.
How many people were killed or disappeared in the Guatemalan Civil War?
Estimates range from 40,000 to 200,000 people killed or forcibly disappeared during the conflict. This figure includes 40,000 to 50,000 documented disappearances. A UN-appointed commission found that government forces were responsible for 93 percent of all human rights abuses.
What role did the United States play in the Guatemalan Civil War?
The United States backed the 1954 coup that overthrew the democratically elected Jacobo Árbenz and installed Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas. During the war, the U.S. sent Green Berets and CIA advisers to train Guatemalan counterinsurgency forces, funded police reorganization, and provided weapons and money to units that carried out extralegal killings and disappearances.
What was the Guatemalan genocide and who was responsible?
The widespread killing of the Mayan people, particularly in the early 1980s, is classified as genocide. The UN-appointed Commission for Historical Clarification concluded the government could have committed genocide in Quiché between 1981 and 1983. General Efraín Ríos Montt, who ruled from 1982 to 1983, was tried and convicted of genocide for the killing and disappearance of more than 1,700 indigenous Ixil Maya, though the conviction was later overturned on procedural grounds.
What caused the Guatemalan Civil War?
The underlying causes included extreme inequality in land ownership rooted in policies dating to the 1871 Liberal Reform, coerced indigenous labor, and U.S.-backed suppression of democratic land reform. The immediate trigger was the failed military revolt of the 13th of November 1960, sparked by outrage over the Ydígoras Fuentes government secretly allowing the U.S. to train Cuban exile forces on Guatemalan soil for the Bay of Pigs invasion.
What was the Spanish Embassy fire in Guatemala and why does it matter?
On the 31st of January 1980, Guatemalan security forces stormed the Spanish Embassy in Guatemala City after indigenous peasants occupied it to protest army killings in Uspantán. A fire killed 36 people, including Vicente Menchú, father of Rigoberta Menchú. Spain immediately severed diplomatic relations with Guatemala. The civil war's historical commission later called the incident "the defining event" of the Guatemalan Civil War.