Genocide, War, and Desaparecido in 1982 Guatemala

Name: Professor's name: Course: Date: Genocide, War, and Desaparecido in 1982 Guatemala The end of World War II ushered in a period of reconstruction worldwide, with both the affected and non-affected countries taking part in the global effort to avert the recurrence of the horrors and atrocities witnessed in the historic event. The mid-20^th century was characteristic of intense global negotiations and deliberations towards promoting lasting peace and coexistence amidst the existing social, political, and economic differences among nations. However, the ideological differences across the social, political, and economic domains between the East and the Western allies led by the U.S. would precipitate a new era of protracted conflict in different countries and regions around the world. The social, political, and economic differences between the East and the West culminated in the Cold War, polarizing supporters of the two global influences into communism and imperialism. The Latin American countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Guatemala constituted a level ground upon which the parallel ideologies exercised their influence and dominance throughout the mid-20^th century to the early 21^st century (Grandin 1). Proponents of the West's democratic and imperialist ideologists clashed with the supporters of communist ideologies across Latin America in what appeared to be the catastrophic effects of the Cold War. In essence, the 20^th century makes for an era of untold suffering across the Latin Americas through widespread massacres, civil wars, violent protests, revolutions, and insurgencies witnessed across the South American region. The clamor for power by the perceived social, political, and economic elites across the region, coupled with the influence of the international political contest between the East and the West, spurred the region into protracted conflicts (Grandin 2). Dictatorship and repressive regimes sprouted across the region, with the ruling regimes justifying their reigns of terror and oppression by their equally diverse quests to protect their perceived political, social, and economic standpoints. The Guatemalan Civil War spanning over three decades, 1960-1996, makes for an excellent depiction of the protracted conflicts encompassing the Latin Americas in the mid-20^th century. Throughout the entire period of the Guatemalan Civil War, the outlined factors herein played out in the country that witnessed a surge of dictatorial regimes that climbed to power through military coups. The civil war was characterized by various massacres targeting members of the indigenous Mayan community under the guise of the community's support for anti-reformist tendencies and widespread insurgencies by the leftist guerilla factions resisting the existing repressive regimes. According to the Commission for Historical Clarification, the UN-backed Guatemalan Truth Commission, the Guatemalan civil war caused the death of approximately 200,000 people and the disappearance of tens of thousands of people. The Commission further estimates the internal displacement of over 1.5 million people and approximately 150,000 people becoming refugees in neighboring Mexico. The repressive regimes of de facto rulers General Lucas Garcia and General Rios Montt between 1981 and 1982 account for some of the gruesome experiences witnessed by Mayan majority victims. General Rios Montt's death in 2018 raised disparities in the scholarly world regarding the diverse approaches taken in articulating the events that unfolded in the 1982 period of the conflict as genocide, war, or disappearance of people. Provided herein is a comparative analysis of the different approaches to the possible articulations between the outlined keywords genocide, war, and desaparecido through the lens of 1982 in Guatemala. Genocide in Guatemala             The widespread massacre of the Mayans during the 36-year-old civil war in Guatemala resulted in the death of over 200,000 people, internal displacements, and the ensuing refugee crisis characterizing the historical event befits its equally common articulation of genocide. The Mayan quest and resilience against the repressive regimes led to the surge of activist groups and leftist guerilla forces who sympathized with the plight of the indigenous ethnic group. Such a perceived stance embraced by the Maya as anti-reformist and supporters of the leftist guerilla groups made it a target for a systematic military operation seeking to put a stop to the insurgency witnessed across the country. In essence, the ensuing governments targeted the Mayan during the over 3-decade-long civil war under the guise that the indigenous ethnic group was behind the nationwide political unrest. The civil war was characteristic of widespread massacres of the Mayans due to their perceived opposition to oppression and discrimination against its members by the pro-imperialist governments that took power from the pro-reformist and communist governments of the post-World War II era. The institutionalization of 'Operation Sophia' by the Guatemalan military in 1980, which aimed at suppressing the anti-government protests by the Mayans and the guerrillas, earmarked a period of ethnic and cultural annihilation of the indigenous Guatemalan ethnicity. Among the key points made by the Inter-American Court in its ruling over the 1982 Plan de Sanchez massacre in Baja Verapaz was that a genocide occurred in Guatemala on orders from the Guatemalan army (Sanford). The court made the ruling against the Guatemalan government based on the killing of 188 Achi-Maya in a massacre orchestrated by the military in conjunction with civil patrol groups under military control on 18 July 1982. However, the killing of 188 individuals of Mayan origin during the Plan de Sanchez massacre was only one of the series of targeted killings against members of the indigenous ethnicity across Guatemala in 1982. It is on the premise of the series of massacres that occurred in Guatemala in 1982 during the repressive regime of General Rios Montt that one can relate to and understand its connotation as the Guatemalan genocide. The pattern of massacres orchestrated by the military during General Rios Montt's regime from 1982 reiterates the Inter-American Court's finding that, indeed, a genocide occurred in Guatemala. For instance, General Rios Montt's first twelve months in power accounted for over 32 massacres leading to the death of approximately 1424 people from the Mayan-dominated Ixil and Ixcan regions (Sanford). Further analysis of the massacres during General Montt's rule indicates that 3180 Maya were victims of the systematic annihilation of members of the ethnic group through a wave of 85 massacres in the broader El Quiche region in the same period. General Montt's regime emphasized articulate execution of the military operation started by his equally oppressive predecessors. The first nine months of his repressive regime accounted for 43% of the Mayan victims of the widespread massacres that occurred since the beginning of the operation in 1980. The ...