It all began in 1954 when democratically elected President Jacobo Árbenz tried to redistribute unused land owned by the American United Fruit Company to poor farmers. The CIA orchestrated a coup, installed a military dictatorship, and for the next four decades Washington supplied the killers with weapons, training, and political cover.
How America Fueled the Genocide
- Weapons & Training: Between 1960 and 1990, thousands of Guatemalan officers were trained at the notorious “School of the Americas” in the U.S. in counter-insurgency and torture techniques.
- CIA Collaboration: American intelligence provided target lists and helped plan massacres.
- Political Shield: Washington labeled the regime “anti-communist heroes” and blocked international condemnation.
Hell Unleashed on the Maya People The bloodiest period was 1981–1983. Entire Maya villages were declared “guerrilla zones” and wiped off the map. - More than 629 documented massacres - Hundreds of villages burned to the ground - Women and children thrown alive into wells or burned inside churches - Over 40,000 people forcibly “disappeared”
The Blood Still Smells Fresh Twenty-eight years after the 1996 peace accords, Guatemala remains one of the poorest and most violent countries in Latin America. Hundreds of thousands of Maya families are still displaced. The wounds have never healed.
America has never apologized. In 1999, President Bill Clinton merely admitted: “U.S. support for military forces… was wrong.” No reparations. No one held accountable.
This is not just Guatemala’s story. It is the story of indigenous peoples everywhere: the moment they demand their land and rights, Western powers crush them in blood.
Guatemala stands as living proof of a dark history that American textbooks still hide.
By Sajjad Ali Nayani ✍️
