SUMMARY
One-sided violence by the Government of Guatemala took place while the country was embroiled in an intrastate conflict. During the second half of this conflict, the government focused specifically on a policy with the aim of massacring the civilian population, in particular the indigenous Mayan ethnic group.
When the intrastate armed conflict started in Guatemala in 1965, the communist insurgents were unsuccessful in recruiting the support of local peasants, especially within the majority Mayan rural population. Regardless, the government initiated an ambitious counterinsurgency campaign in 1966-67 through the establishment of local militias and death squads. This led to the killing of thousands of civilians in eastern Guatemala, the majority of which were never supporters of the guerrillas. After martial law was lifted in 1967, the death squads remained as a means to suppress opposition to the military government as low-level conflict continued. In the late 1970s, the rebel movements received increased support in the countryside and from 1981 onwards, the Government of Guatemala launched a policy of systematic killings. This policy, originally proposed by President-General Lucas in 1981 but accelerated after he was replaced in 1982 by General Rios Montt, was an extreme approach to counterinsurgency measures. The government noted that the opposition had strong support among the indigenous and peasant communities and thus decided to systematically and publicly kill everyone and burn all housed in the villages suspected of collaborating with the guerrillas.
Since 1989, the first year covered by UCDP data, victims of one-sided have in particular included indigenous activists, suspected government opponents, returning refugees, critical academics and students, trade unionists, journalists, and street children. Among the targets were also human rights workers, for example, protesting against military pressure on the area inhabitants to join the civil patrols - which should be strictly voluntary according to the constitution.
One-sided violence by Government of Guatemala forces has taken the form of mass-killings and selective assassinations, especially in the countryside. Commonly, the army and paramilitary forces rounded up the people from a village and then started the massacres. They often went beyond simply eliminating their victims. Particularly when selectively killing individuals, their actions have included burning or mutilating a corpse, decapitating a corpse after death, shooting bullets into a body already killed by stabbing, raping a victim before killing her, or torturing a victim to death.
The Government of Guatemala first became active as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in 1989, when the one-sided violence resulted in over 25 civilian deaths. The documented use of one-sided violence by the military started many years earlier, with the most casualties reportedly taking place in 1981-83. However, 1989 is the first year covered by UCDP data.
