"Cause & Effect of the Guatemalan Genocide"
“The definition of genocide will be taken from the Genocide Convention, which defines genocide as “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group””(Maritz).The Guatemalan Genocide began in 1981 because the Guatemalan Government believed the Mayan Indians were working toward a communist revolution. The Mayans were targeted and tortured in terrible ways because of these accusations.“At all periods of history genocide has inflicted great losses on humanity” (Kaye and Stråth 2000: 24). Over 200,000 Mayan Indians died and 1.5 million were taken from their homes or displaced(Guatemalan Genocide). Before the genocide, the Mayans were the enemies of the Guatemalans and were later made slaves and taken to refugee camps. The Guatemalan Government violated the Mayan’s human rights by destroying their crops, killing their livestock, fouling water supplies and violating cultural symbols and sacred places. If a Mayan was seen, he or she would be killed on the spot. Mayans were forced to kill their own families and watch other people’s executions. The perpetrators of this genocide was the Guatemalan Government, their army, paramilitary teams and civil patrols. Their goal and motive was to eliminate the Mayan Indians and prevent them from overriding the Guatemalan Government(Hartzell). The United States was involved in this genocide by giving money to assist the Guatemalan Government. They used the money for weapons to commit the crimes of killing people. Towards the end of the genocide, the Guatemalan Government signed a peace treaty with UNRG (Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unit). The United Nations also organized a commission of Historical Clarification. People were convicted of genocide as well as crimes against humanity(Guatemalan Genocide).