The Disappeared in Guatemala
European countries have always been active in colonizing countries in Asia and the Americas. In 1495, Spanish colonized the Mayan civilization, creating dispute among the natives and the foreigners. The Spanish established privileges for themselves in the colonized land and forced their ways of living onto the Indians. Consequently, even after the independence of Guatemala, the Mayans continued to live under a suppressive rule for 125 years (Guatemala). This violated multiple articles from the UN Declaration of Rights, as they were deprived of religious freedom, education, and power. However, when Guatemala began to reform in favor of the Mayans by giving them land, United States lost profits as they
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This civil war was fought between the government and the rural poor, consisting of the domestic Mayan and ladino peasants. The powerless Mayans began leading protests and riots against the repressive government, demanding economical and political equality and inclusion of the Mayan culture in 1970 (Genocide in Guatemala). The Mayans were, however, restricted by the constant fundings of the supreme United States for the Guatemalan military (Guatemala). Efraín Ríos Montt, the military dictator during this extended period of inequality, began Operation Sofía. This program was designated to end the guerilla warfare initiated by righteous Mayan insurgent groups who endeavoured to defeat the dominant military government and reform. He committed countless crimes against the indigenous, including: widespread massacres, rape, and torture (Efraín Ríos Montt). The dictator was a military general who gained power through a coup d’etat and corrupted the government. In other words, this dictator was one of the main causes of the disappearance in …show more content…
In an effort to suppress these growing ideas, they turned to forced disappearance, a technique where the state or a third party secretly abducts people with the consent of the government. They targeted equalists, more specifically, trade unionists and human rights activists, and student leaders. The police force attempted to make examples out of these activists by forcing them out of their homes, beating them, and eventually killing them. They would then dispose of their bodies by burying them or throwing them into the ocean. Because of this, many families who had family members who fell victims to this event are unaware if their loved one is still alive or not. Of the 200,000 casualties from the war, 40,000-50,000 disappeared. According to the Center of Justice and Accountability, Of that 40,000-50,000, 83% of which were Mayan, and 93% were killed in ways that violated the constitution (Guatemala). The civil war and genocide eventually came to a close when the government and the insurgents signed a peace accord in 1996. However, this event was revisited in 2005 when a munition base was found when searching for active bombs. In the base, over eighty million cases were found relating to the disappearance; files were tabbed from assassinations, disappeared, and even special cases (A Humans Rights Breakthrough in Guatemala). This
Even after the strong pressure by US Secretary of State, the Organization of American States resolves to condemn what they believed was communist infiltration in the Americas. Under the control of Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas, he received a strong financial and logistic support from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to prepare his Army in Honduran territory to attack Guatemala. The CIA's involvement had been approved by Eisenhower as a way to stop what they considered a spread of Communism in the Americas. In June, 1954 the troops of Carlos Castillo crossed the Honduran-Guatemalan border and began their attack against Arbenz government. By this time not only was Arbenz internationally isolated but he had also lost much support from his own army and peasant population. Most of the Guatemalans felt they were in a very weak position compared to the invading army, after they heard from an ally radio that reported a larger invading army and the bomber that dropped some bombs around Guatemala City. The demoralized population simply resigned to be defeated by Castillo. Arbenz himself was hard hit when the invasion began. When he realized that any kind of resistance would only bring more deaths and very little success for his movement he decided to do what was best and decided to announce
The Civil War in El Salvador lasted from 1980 to 1992, and the El SAlvadoran government was doing their best to minimize the threat of their opposition. Their main opposition, The Frente Farabundo Marti Para La Liberacion Nacional; otherwise known as the FMLN, was a guerrilla group that was organized to fight the corruption in the country. 175). One of the main goals of the organization was to create a new society that is not degrading its citizens and promotes equality. Throughout El Salvador’s history, one organization to the next would run the country through repressive actions and social injustice. One of the main reasons that the FMLN fought the acting government were due to these social restraints on the lower- class citizens in El Salvador.
When they found the “new world” is too weak to resist the invasion of European, they started to establish the colony in America. Bartolomé de Las Casas used to be a priest who explored America on Hispaniola and Cuba. But after he witnessed the colonists enslave and mistreat Indians, he changed his mind and start to protect the Indians. He free his Indian slaves in 1514, and start to against Spanish mistreat them (Foner, p.7). After that, he made the effort to liberate the Indian slaves, and he had backed to Spain several times want to make the King reduce the heavy labor of Indians. Finally, Spain published New Laws in 1542, which indicate that Indians no longer be enslaved (Foner, p.7).
From the time of its colonization at the hands of Spanish Conquistadors in the early 1500’s, Guatemala has suffered under the oppression of dictator after dictator. These dictators, who ruled only with the support of the military and only in their own interests, created a form of serfdom; by 1944, two percent of the people owned 70 percent of the usable land.
The Mayan Genocide was a result of a civil war concerning communism and democracy between corrupt leaders and the people of Guatemala. The Guatemalan army carried out the genocide under the self-proclaimed name “killing machines”. According to the article Genocide in Guatemala “the army destroyed 626 villages, killed or “disappeared” more than 200,000 people and displaced an additional 1.5 million, while more than 150,000 were driven to seek refuge in Mexico”. The army murdered and tortured without regard to age or gender, men, women, and children all alike. In an attempt to end the conflict Peace Accords were signed, in spite of the fact that there was little change. Directly following the Mayan genocides, Guatemala faced physical and emotional
War and violence in Central America is a result of governmental injustice due to the United States’ foreign policies. The United States supported El Salvador with weapons and money throughout the civil war. As a result of enforcing these policies, El Salvador’s poverty, population and crime rate increased. The books “…After…” by Carolina Rivera Escamilla and “The Tattooed Soldier” by Hector Tobar give us a glimpse of the issues Central Americans faced.
The most important idea in Allen J. Christenson's Popol Vuh is maize or often known as corn but to the Maya culture, corn has a bigger significance than just food. Corn has played a important role in empires, civilizations and people for thousands of years. The Maya have a lot of admiration to corn as a cornerstone of their culture and spirituality. Maize was so highly admired that the Mayans had a Maize God. Corn was a gift from the Gods and cultivating it and planting it was a sacred duty it was a really important process in which corn was to be planted and harvested. Temples were built for Maize Gods and corn was used to nourish workers and kings. To the Mayans, the Gods made humankind out of maize. The Maya also considered this crop to be the vegetation of life in order to eat and grow. This symbolized the fragile nature of corn, a crop that depends entirely on human cultivation for its reproduction with such deep meaning and that has deep culture and meaning.
During the European expedition in America, they founded colonies in North America that attracted thousands of settlers. The Europeans tried to get rid of the Native Americans in order to get what they wanted, which was economic wealth, landowning, slave trade, property ownership, and tobacco. M. Zylstra writes about “Colonization of History”, hybridization of history, and what the colonization of the natives by the Europeans lead to. Zylstra states.
In 1492 Columbus and his men landed in a completely different part of the world than they expected; the Americas. They came to be a part of the emerging western empire, and the riches that came along with it. In the decades that followed that first landing in the Americas; Spanish explorers came in search for the great wonders that this land was claimed to have. These Spanish Explorers had no respect for the native peoples who have inhabited this land for centuries. Certain tribes were unable to revolt against the Conquistadores, however, some fought back and won. Over the next hundred years the Spanish continued their injustice towards the Natives because they believed their Christian duty allowed them to conquer this land and bring its people, no mater the cost, to their God.
European colonization of the Americas started with the accidental discovery of the Americas by Christopher Columbus in 1492. After 1600, colonization was made possible in North America because of the population decrease of Native Americans. By 1614, Spain, England, France and the Dutch Republic all established territorial claims in North America. Although Spain, England, and the Dutch established colonies in North America, France was the most successful in the effort of colonizing America prior to 1660, specifically through securing cooperation of native peoples, their establishment of permanent settlements, and their development of a viable economy.
Beginning in 1942 with Christopher Columbus, the New World was conquered by Spain’s Empire which established much of South America, the United States and the Caribbean. When the Spanish first arrived, their mission was to see what the land had to offer as well as convert the indigenous people. What was not expected for the Spaniards to bring was disease and hardship of the land’s people. Spain began to abuse the land, turn its people into hard labor workers and to gain wealth from all the many riches the New World had to offer. Once the Spanish empire gained control of the New World it became the most powerful and biggest European empire since ancient times. Spain took from the land and used its wealth for their own personal gain. But it was only a matter of time before problems began to take place within the New World.
According to Oglesby, “During Guatemala's armed conflict, the army viewed Mayas as a real or potential support base for the guerrilla insurgency. Violence against Mayans during the scorched earth campaign of 1981–1983 was executed with a racist frenzy. In an estimated 600 villages, soldiers killed everyone they could find, including infants, children, and elderly people. Mayan altars and sacred spaces were destroyed, as were village crops and seed supplies” (Oglesby 2017). Racism has not only been a part of the genocide that happened in Guatemala in the 1980s but it has been something that has been an issue for awhile. The people of Guatemala have experienced racism since as early as the 1500s. In the article “Racism”, Oglesby describes, “Spanish colonialism, beginning in the early 1500s, brought destructive changes to the Maya. These changes included forcible conversion to Christianity, forced labor on the Spanish colonists' haciendas (large farms), and a colonial caste system that created a social hierarchy based on ideas of racial superiority. In this system, Europeans and their descendants
Since the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492 and over the course for over four centuries, the Spanish Empire was constantly tried to expand the territory in Americas. The first settlement in present U.S was at St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565, followed by others in New Mexico, California, Arizona, Texas, and Louisiana. In 1598, San Juan de los Caballeros was established, near present day Santa Fe, New Mexico, by Juan de Oñate and about 1,000 other Spaniards. According to Perez and Juan (2005), there were total of three hundred thousand Spaniards moved to U.S during 1820 to 2000s. The arrival of Columbus was part of colonialism in Latin Americas. The Spanish conquerors had succeeded to bui...
The Maya civilization is a very important culture that has left a great impact on our world today. They are known for their written language, art, mathematical system and astronomical system. The Maya territory includes Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Belize, and southern Mexico. In these areas the Maya thrived in their religious practices, politics, and their use of the territory.