Injusticia In Guatemala

Injusticia: The United States Role in the Guatemalan Civl War

“When you are convinced your cause is just, you fight for it.”- Rigoberta Menchu. Menchu is an activist for indigenous Mayan people, especially in the aspect of land ownership and poverty. Mayan people make up a large percentage of the Guatemalan population. More than half of the population of Guatemala lives below the national poverty line and thirteen percent of the population lives in extreme poverty. This saddening statistic is largely a result of a 37-year civil war that displaced many families that, even today, are still trying to find refuge. Guatemala is still recovering from this tragic event, and the United States has an intertwining role in the country 's past and present

Castillo was assassinated and General Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes, a new autocratic ruler, took over. (Miller) This six-year period was described as chaos, and viewed as a time of destruction, violence, and desaparecidos. Anyone who opposed the acts of the military ruled government was killed or they disappeared. “The victims come from all sectors of Guatemalan society, but are mostly leaders of opposition and popular organizations, workers, campesinos and teachers, student leaders, and clergymen or their lay assistants...Victims thus apprehended disappear without a trace, as though they had faded away, without any further notice of their whereabouts (Inter American Commision on Human Rights).” Many of those who were lost during that time still have not been found or are just starting to be identified by released documents from the CIA and the Guatemalan

Even now, many Americans do not know that this war even happened because we act as if it did not. The CIA has just begun releasing paperwork in the past couple of years that highlight the more than silent role we had in the ignition of years of fighting. However, our role is still trying to be justified and the blame is still being dodged. People fleeing the gang violence that has developed and caused Guatemala City to have one of the highest murder rates in the world are viewed as just immigrants trying to take jobs from Americans, whereas many could be treated much like the refugees from Syria. Fleeing from violence. In search of a better