The Holocaust: The Guatemalan Civil War

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What is one genocide that you have heard of the doesn’t include the Holocaust? One genocide that was just as bloody and gruesome as the Holocaust is the Guatemalan Civil War. The war had started in 1960. It had lasted 36 years. It finally had been ended by peace accords in 1996 (PBS). This war left many parts of the country in pieces (Pedrera). The civil war caused many deaths and a lot of destruction in the involved countries. As this genocide was going on, many of the people would either flee or hide, trying to get away from anyone and everyone that would kill them. Most women had been beaten and killed. Out of every one that had been killed, there were five hundred thousand people that had been murdered (PBS). There was fifty thousand …show more content…

Eighty three percent of the people were Mayans. This was an long conflict that had much mutilation, public body dumping, abductions, and much violence. The Guatemalan Revolutionary National Unity was part of one of the most violent times during the civil war. Many indigenous civilians were killed (PBS). Even fiveteen years after the war intimidation seems to be an issue in both political and civilian life. People sometimes refer to the war as the “silent holocaust.” The sole of the war reaches back around five hundred years with violence and ethnic exclusion. Guatemala gained independence in 1821. Crops and drinking water were polluted and over three hundred villages were completely razed. The war was started to protest poverty, oppression, and foreign corporations from taking land from farmers. Carried a large burden on Mayan families living in the rural Western Highlands. More than a million people lost their land and were driven into poverty. Surviving Mayans were left without any support (CJA). The military-control and guerilla insurgent had fought each other in the war (Pedrera). Countries involved is El Salvador, Nicaragua, Argentina, and Chile

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