Mayan Genocide In Guatemala

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place to cook, and so on. Of course the conditions of the camps were terrible. Now they had to live in awful conditions, and many people died as a result”(Guatemalan Genocide: Beatriz Manz Personal Account 2017). This shows that they were treated horribly and were put in places with awful conditions. In these horrible conditions the Mayans had to try and survive by cooperating with the Guatemalan army. Most of the Mayans did that but the ones who didn't got shot. The Guatemalan government abused their power in order to treat people unfairly and to get what they want. This was mentally and physically draining for the Mayans and any innocent citizens who were thought to be associated with the guerillas.

In Guatemala racial prejudice was a big part of the genocide. This is …show more content…

According to Oglesby, “During Guatemala's armed conflict, the army viewed Mayas as a real or potential support base for the guerrilla insurgency. Violence against Mayans during the scorched earth campaign of 1981–1983 was executed with a racist frenzy. In an estimated 600 villages, soldiers killed everyone they could find, including infants, children, and elderly people. Mayan altars and sacred spaces were destroyed, as were village crops and seed supplies” (Oglesby 2017). Racism has not only been a part of the genocide that happened in Guatemala in the 1980s but it has been something that has been an issue for awhile. The people of Guatemala have experienced racism since as early as the 1500s. In the article “Racism”, Oglesby describes, “Spanish colonialism, beginning in the early 1500s, brought destructive changes to the Maya. These changes included forcible conversion to Christianity, forced labor on the Spanish colonists' haciendas (large farms), and a colonial caste system that created a social hierarchy based on ideas of racial superiority. In this system, Europeans and their descendants

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