Guatemalan Civil War

1960-11-13 - 1996-12-29

Fought 1960-1996 between the government of Guatemala and various leftist rebel groups, rooted in land-distribution conflicts after the US-backed 1954 coup installed Carlos Castillo Armas and halted reform. The Guatemalan state carried out genocide against the Maya population in the early 1980s and widespread human rights violations, with an estimated 40,000 to 200,000 killed or 'disappeared'; the UN-backed historical clarification commission attributed 93 percent of abuses to government forces. The war began with a failed 1960 military officers' revolt and followed decades of right-wing military dictatorships.