Revisiting the Past
During the Guatemalan Genocide, indigenous communities became the primary targets of extensive human rights abuses, forced disappearances, torture, sexual violence, and mass killings carried out by the government and military forces. This included men, women, children, and the elderly. Although this took place during the Guatemalan War which began in the 1960’s, it wasn’t until 1981 that this horrific attack against the Mayan peoples occurred. This resulted from the war shifting from the urban areas of Guatemala to the rural areas of the country because the Guerrillas wanted to change their strategies and attack the government while obtaining popular support from indigenous communities. In an effort to exterminate the Guerrillas or “communism”, the Guatemalan state sent their Army to rural areas to “remove the water from the fish”, Guerrillas being the fish and the water being the indigenous communities.
Unfortunately, the annihilation of indigenous peoples resulted from the Guatemalan state’s efforts, bringing about the Mayan genocide. It is believed that over 200,000 Guatemalans were victims of these atrocities. According to The Historical Clarification Commission (CEH) 83% of those who were massacred were indigenous/Mayans and 17.3% were of Ladino/Mestizo. It is said that 90% of those deaths were caused by the army and paramilitary forces, 4% were brought on by the Guerrilla groups, and 6% cannot be allotted. To better understand the brutality that this event brought upon the Mayan community it is important to note that 626 villages were destroyed, an estimated 50,000 rapes occurred (the exact figure is unknown) – 86% being Mayan women, and various Guatemalans were forcibly displaced.
It wasn’t until Rigoberta Menchú a Mayan activist and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, brought international attention to the Guatemalan genocide in 1996 that a peace accord between the Guerillas and the government ended the Guatemalan civil war. The attention that was drawn to this act of cruelty allowed people from various fields to become interested and offer help to survivors so that they could find long lost relatives whether dead or alive), proclaim their stories, and attain justice. One of the scholars that aided these individuals was Freddy, the founder and director of the Guatemalan Foundation of Forensics Anthropology (Fundación de Antropología Forense de Guatemala). He was able to exhume 1,450 graves and discovered the remains of 6,500 victims. It became his mission to embark on a journey to uncover the truth buried beneath layers of pain and suffering. As time progressed more specialists came to the aid of the Mayan community, offering various services that would allow them to find some peace after the trauma that they had endured.
However, despite the support of these multidisciplinary professionals and activists there are still numerous Guatemalan citizens who search for answers as to the whereabouts of loved ones, family members, and friends.“We are still seeking justice” Julia Payon, a Maya Kaqchikel survivor of the massacre who lost her father after the military took him away, stated after a ceremony that took place in the grounds of a former military base in San Juan Comalapa, which is now home to a memorial for victims of enforced disappearances. Like Julia, many others are waiting to see those who were involved in the genocide be brought to justice.
