Guatemala Genocide
Perpetrators
 When: March 23, 1982 – August 8, 1983
 Who: Guatemalan dictator during civil war
Efrain Rios Montt
(1926 – April 1, 2018)
Dictator of Guatemala
Jose Mauricio
Rodriguez Sanchez
(1946 – Present)
Chief of Military Intelligence
Luis Enrique Mendoza
(Unknown – Present)
Military Head of Operations
Ixil Genocide Victims
 Dead: 1,771
 Causes: Torture, mass executions
 Targets: Indigenous Ixil Mayans
 Refugees and IDPs: up to 200,000
Uncovering mass graves of the Ixil.
Refugees
 How many?: up to 200,000 between 1981 - 1984
 Where did they go?: Mexico
 How were they treated?: Registered and allowed to stay in
camps or local communities in Mexico
 Who supported them?: UNHCR, the Mexican government
 Did they go home?: 43,000 returned to Guatemala in 1999
Summary of Genocide - Timeline
March 23, 1982:
Rios Montt seized
power in a coup.
July 1982: Guatemalan
Army descended on the
Ixil region, burning
houses, murdering men,
women and children,
destroying fields, and
killing livestock.
August 8, 1983:
General Mejia Victores
overthrew Rios Montt.
August
1983
March
1982
April 1982: Rios Montt
launched a “scorched-earth”
campaign against the Ixil.
December 1982: Massacre
in the town of Dos Erres
where soldiers killed more
than 250 people.
What’s Happened Since?
 1996: End of Guatemalan civil war.
 1999: An UN-sponsored group found the Guatemalan government responsible for
the 1982 genocide.
 July 2006: A Spanish court charged Rios Montt and 8 others with torture,
genocide and state terrorism, but Guatemalan courts declared the arrest warrants
invalid.
 March 19, 2013: Rios Montt’s trial before Guatemala Supreme Court started.
 May 10, 2013: Guatemalan Supreme Court sentenced Rios Montt to 80 years in
prison for genocide and crimes against humanity.
 July 2015: Rios Montt was found mentally incapable of standing trial.
 April 1, 2018: Rios Montt died in Guatemala City.
 September 2018: Guatemalan judges unanimously ruled that the country’s
military carried out genocide and crimes against humanity.
 June 2019: Luis Enrique Mendoza is arrested while voting in general elections.
Resources
 “Rios Montt Trial a Milestone for Justice”: Human Rights Watch press release:
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https://www.hrw.org/news/2013/01/28/guatemala-rios-montt-trial-milestonejustice
“State of Violence in Guatemala, 1960-1996”: American Association for the
Advancement of Science:
http://www.aaas.org/sites/default/files/migrate/uploads/Guatemala_en.pdf
Frontline World Timeline:
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/guatemala704/history/timeline.html#
The New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-mayagenocide-trial
BBC News: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-43611867
New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/01/obituaries/efrain-riosmontt-Guatemala-dead.html
NBC News: https://www.nbcnew.com/news/latino/former-Guatemalan-dictatorefrain-rios-montt-dies-leaving-bitter-legacy-n861976
Al Jazeera: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/09/guatemala-military-carriedgenocide-court-rules-180927145730845.html