Guatemalan Slaughterhouse: 200,000 dead; 100,000 "disappeared"

Horhey · Apr 21, 2012

For years I was under the impression that the death toll was 200,000 but:

NPR: Group Works to Identify Remains in Guatemala

An estimated 200,000 people were killed in Guatemala's decades-long civil war, and another 100,000 "disappeared."
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-"Disappeared" means "killed" but the bodies havent been found. The death toll in El Salvador and Nicaragua is also much higher when you include the "disappeared".

The Washington Post: Papers Expand on U.S. Role in Guatemala

Taken as a whole, the documents show that Washington not only was aware of the Guatemalan military's excesses against civilians but continued to support it – sometimes openly, sometimes not – throughout the bloodiest days of the conflict, which killed 200,000 people.

In a report issued in Guatemala last month, an independent commission that grew out of the U.N.-sponsored peace process blamed security forces backed by Washington for the vast majority of the abuses committed in the war, including the burning of entire Indian villages, torture, kidnapping and murder.
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Acts of Genocide

Using the National Security Doctrine as its justification, and acting in the name of anti-communism, crimes were committed which include the kidnapping and assassination of political activists, students, trade unionists and human rights advocates, all categorised as “subversives”; the forced disappearance of political and social leaders and poor peasants; and the systematic use of torture.

During most of the internal armed confrontation, attempts to form organisations for the defence of human rights resulted in the elimination of their leaders. In the 1980s, the appearance of new groups of human rights defenders in various areas was received by the State with intensive repression which resulted in the murder or disappearance of many of their members.

The Role of the United States

The United States demonstrated that it was willing to provide support for strong military regimes in its strategic backyard. In the case of Guatemala, military assistance was directed towards reinforcing the national intelligence apparatus and for training the officer corps in counterinsurgency techniques, key factors which had significant bearing on human rights violations during the armed confrontation.
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One Churchman in Guatemala is quoted as saying:

The roads began to stink, there were so many dead bodies.
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In 1993, Historian Walter LaFeber observed:

The years from 1979 to 1991 turned out to be the bloodiest, most violent, and most destructive era in Central America's post-1820 history. The number of dead and "disappeared" varies according to different sources. The minimum is 200,000 (40,000 in Nicaragua, 75,000 in El Salvador, 75,000 in Guatemala, 10,000 in Honduras and the frontier fighting in Costa Rica), but this is only an estimate. Millions have been displaced or made refugees. If a similar catastrophe struck the United States in proportion, 2.5 million North Americans would die and 10 to 20 million would be driven from their homes.
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Guatemalan Slaughterhouse: 200,000 dead; 100,000 "disappeared"

Horhey Well-Known Member

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Guatemalan Slaughterhouse: 200,000 dead; 100,000 "disappeared"

Horhey Well-Known Member

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