ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Guatemala’s path through civil wars and domination by a succession of military dictators. Government promotion of coffee cultivation stripped away the large indigenous population’s land and created a forced labor system. The banana industry led by United Fruit grew powerful in the early twentieth century. Civilian reformists came to power in 1944, but their policies and leftist orientation prompted a US CIA-backed coup in 1954 that restored army rule and repressed the left and center. With US aid and advice, the military launched serial campaigns of repression of indigenous people, unions, and political parties. Military-led reforms brought civilian Vinicio Cerezo to the presidency in 1985 but his efforts to secure peace failed. War against the URNG rebels continued until 1996 when the URNG and President Arzú’s government reached a peace settlement. The guerrillas demobilized, but reformed security forces were weak and former police morphed into criminal networks. Subsequent decades have seen escalating criminal violence, political corruption, economic stagnation, and continued exclusion of indigenous people from political and economic equality. The UN-backed CICIG was installed in 2007 to disrupt these networks, but its successes threatened powerful elites who ultimately sought to dismantle it.
