Overview

Guatemala has endured a vicious 36-year epidemic of death squads, dirty wars, disappearances, and kidnappings.
“Guatemala is one of the world’s most violent societies. There is no country in this hemisphere that surpasses Guatemala’s homicide and disappearance rates. Saving the country from communism and self-interest blended to form a psychology conducive to supporting physical repression of workers and peasants in the name of anti-communism.” – Secret Report, U.S. State Department, Guatemala’s Disappeared: 1977-86, March 28, 1986

In March 1999, President William Clinton became the first president to admit US role in slaughter of thousands of civilians in 36-year civil war.

Guatemala, an integral part of the ancient Mayan civilization, came under Spanish control in 1524 and became free from Spanish colonial rule in 1821. In 1831, the government ceded a large amount of territory to Britain that became British Honduras, and present day Belize. In 1839 the Republic of Guatemala was established.
During the rule of Manuel Estrada Cabrera from 1898-1921, and Jorge Ubico (1931-1944) Guatemala maintained an open door policy, promoting economic development by inviting investment and ownership by U.S. companies.

After the 1944 October Revolution a reformer, Juan Jose Arevalo, came to power, the first labor unions were organized and literate women were given the right to vote. by President Jacabo Arbenz, succeeded Arevalo in 1950 and continued land reforms, expropriating land from the powerful United Fruit Company (UFCO) and threatening the interests of U.S. firms. These reforms were taken as a clear sign of communist influence and the U.S. mounted a covert operation to overthrow Arbenz. In 1954, a small rebel army, led by Carlos Castillo Armas, and armed by the U.S. invaded from Honduras. Radio broadcasts inflated reports of the invasion and government forces capitulated, Arbenz fled the country and Armas took control of the ruling junta and restored the status quo, returning expropriated land to UFCO.

Over the ensuing decades, Guatemala remained under repressive military rule that spawned a multiple guerrilla movements and widespread insurgency, lasting for 36 years. Human rights groups estimate as many as 80,000 people were killed between 1954 and 1982. In 1978, General Romeo Lucas Garcia assumed the presidency in one of a series of suspect elections and allegedly ordered the killing of more than 5000 dissidents and opposition political leaders by death squads. As a result of his extreme repression, the U.S. cut-off aid and Garcia was overthrown in 1982.

Several small guerrilla groups merged to become the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) in 1982 and in the 1986 elections Guatemala returned to civilian rule, but not stability. After winning election as president in 1991, right-wing businessman, Jorge Serrano, attempted to suspend the constitution, provoking widespread protests and international attention. Serrano soon followed many of his predecessors into exile.

Ramiro de Leon Carpio, Guatemala’s human rights ombudsman was appointed president. Fighting continued between URNG guerrillas and the military, which continued human rights abuses. The United Nations helped negotiate a ceasefire agreement, completed in December 1996. President Alvaro Arzu purged the military of corrupt officers implicated in narcotics trafficking, kidnappings and human rights abuses, presumably ending an era of conflict that claimed the lives of more than 100,000 people and created an estimated 1 million refugees.

The government has pledged itself to a program of business privatization and reform. Meanwhile, the climate of conflict, insecurity and economic deprivation has contributed to the rise of Guatemalan drug trade and crime as a substitute for economic opportunity.

As the U.S. Government has declassified documents related to Guatemala, interest has increased in reviewing the role that played by the CIA and State Department in the Guatemalan conflict. A wide variety of information is available from the National Security Archive, including fascinating insights provided by previously secret and top secret documents.( See: Related Resources below)

As Guatemala struggles to establish a viable, enduring government, its leaders face continuing challeges from a well-established narcotics production and trafficking network. As pressure has been brought to bear on Colombian drug traffickers, they have expanded their networks wherever instability allows them to thrive. Guatemala has become fertile ground for drug production and trafficking that blurs the distinctions between criminals, insurgents and corrupt regimes. As so often happens once peace breaks out, international attention shifts to new crisis areas and thus allows smoldering problems to reignite in the future.

Related Resources:

Papers Show U.S. Role in Guatemalan Abuses
By Douglas Farah, Washington Post Foreign Service, Thursday, March 11, 1999
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/daily/march99/guatemala11.htm

The Guatemalan Military: What the U.S. Files Reveal
National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 32
Kate Doyle
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB32/

U.S. Policy in Guatemala 1966-1996
National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 11
Kate Doyle and Carlos Osorio
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB11/docs/

Clinton apology to Guatemala
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,315780,00.html

Guatemalan Death Squad Dossier
American Academy for the Advancement of Science
Science and Human Rights Program
http://shr.aaas.org/guatemala/gdsd/