Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Guatemalan Civil War began on the 13th of November 1960 when a group of left-wing junior military officers led by Jacobo Árbenz and Major Francisco Javier Arana attacked the National Palace. This revolt was triggered by General Ydígoras Fuentes allowing U.S. train invasion forces to prepare for the Bay of Pigs Invasion without consulting the Guatemalan military.
Guatemalan government forces committed genocide against the Maya population during the civil war from 1981 to 1983 under the rule of General Efraín Ríos Montt. Military intelligence services coordinated killings and disappearances that resulted in an estimated 40,000 to 200,000 people killed or disappeared between 1960 and 1996.
The U.S. government ordered the CIA to launch Operation PBFortune from 1952 to 1954 to halt what they perceived as Guatemala's communist revolt. The operation installed right-wing Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas who dissolved social reforms and returned confiscated land to the United Fruit Company and elite landlords.
Strong ties existed between the United Fruit Company and high Eisenhower administration officers including Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and CIA director Allen Dulles. The company influenced U.S. policy by opposing Decree 900 which threatened its interests by ordering redistribution of fallow land on large estates.
Estimates indicate that between 3,000 and 8,000 peasants were killed in the Zacapa-Izabal region alone between October 1966 and March 1968. Overall death tolls for the entire civil war period range from 40,000 to 200,000 people killed or disappeared forcefully.