Was the "Civil War" in Guatemala during the '70s and '80s, a real civil war?

Question

Guatemalan army officers I spoke to, told me it was a continuation of cultural conflict, between the Kekchi, who controled the army and Kekchi traditional enemies, the Ixil, Mam, and Eastern Quiche.

I have been in Guatemala quite a bit over the last twenty years. It seems there would need to be more Government than exist, to have a civil war.

Answer 1

Africa has just about no government and there are tons of civil wars there,- there government is basicly an organized army controlled by one leader, that tell the people what to do.

Answer 2

I was in Guatemala from '69 onward, off and on. I live there full-time now. I never heard it called a civil war until the '90's. I don't think there was an ancient dispute between indigenous groups. It was a dispute between Latino Guatemalans who think that indigenous peoples are a sub-human species who can be shot like quail, and indigenous Maya who don't agree.

Historically, the Maya have been left alone by the Latinos, because they had nothing worth stealing. When they discover something worthwhile, like the tourism business, they do what is necessary to steal it. Tourists can go to Tikal, for example, and never see an indigenous face. Instead, they will tell you fairy tales about how the Maya disappeared. long ago.

I still can't figure out what the parties agreed to in the "peace accords". The killing continues. For example, there have been 48 political murders, leading up to the National elections on Sept. 9th. The indigenous people don't call it a civil war, the call it "the troubles". The "troubles" continue.

Answer 3

I have been in Guatemala periodically for many years also.
I agree with part of what StoneX had to say. I see that blood sport going on. I was there when President Arzu made the deal with the International community to end the
'war". All that happened was a distribution of the 4.5 billion provided by the International community and a change in the linguistics. What had been insurgents are now called delincuentes, delinquents, And the body count continues as before. The URNG when pressed for a political platform seems to have none. When the opposition to what little government there is has no program, it is difficult to see what is civil war like, about the mass killings. I tlooks and feels just like mass criminality to me. It looks and feels like social anarchy rather than civil war.

I carry around Quetzal coins that say PAZ on them. I pass them out here where there are peace actions.

I really do not believe there is or was a civil war. I do believe that tribal conflicts thousands of years old are still being played out in Guatemala. Modern concepts like civil war are too sophisticated for most Guatemalans who are rural and poorly educated. Civil war is the construct of the reporters from Europe and USA who trade rumors while drunk in the bars of Zone 10 in the Capital.

Ethnic cleansing is not civil war. It is ethnic cleansing. I think stone X confuses the two.

I vote no on the issue of Civil War.

Answer 4

A Civil War is in fact the most UN-Civil thing to happen to a country,

Father against Son,

Brother against Brother,

Neighbor against Neighbor.

Some deep wounds are opened that never heal.

Seeing as you speak of traditional enemies what happened in the 1970's and 1980's seems to be a continuation of a former civil, racil conflict.

Answer 5

I only know about Guatemala from friends who were there in the Peace Corps. I know b22, and have listened to his stories. His body guard was just murdered. Tuesday night. This is 11 years after the end of the "war". It seems just like Detroit but going on everywhere. The Guatemalan news papers I have read, sound like what StoneX describes. That is not civil war. That is power struggle in a feudalist society.
I am going to side with b22 whom I know and trust.

Answer 6

It was a form of "ethnic cleansing" rather than a civil war. you have to realize politics in other parts of the world usually involve gun fire and murder.

My parents both came from Latin American countries and made it clear to me that politics are a blood sport in that part of the world. My father and his family were hunted through the streets of Bogota because my grandfather wrote a scathing editorial about the political group in power at the time. My father was almost killed twice before he was 14 years old strictly because of politics.

These people play for keeps.

Who ever is in power is tying to stay in power and those not in power want power. Politics also allows for a lot of old bad blood to be spilled. if you are in power and can get away with wiping out a village of your ancient enemies then you do it. that's just the rules of the game.

In Guatemala many rural tribes were targeted because they did not have power, ancient feuds were played out and the people in power wanted revenge and to take the land that belonged to the various villages. Entire villages disappeared. men were rounded up and murdered. Women were raped.

it was not about who had control of the government it was about who would survive and who would disappear in to history.

ADD ON: bondioli22, I was not saying it was ethnic cleansing, i was sayin i was more in line wih it. Like you said the tribal sytem is to "primitave" to understand the concept of a civil war.

Obviously it is not true ethnic clensing, but it is takeing cre of ancient rivalries and grudges.

Answer 7

yep