This story is published through the Indigenous News Alliance.
Guatemala’s 36-year civil war led to the killing of around 200,000 people, the destruction of hundreds of villages, and the raping of more than 100,000 women. Indigenous Maya people experienced these crimes at disproportionate rates, and both the United Nations and the country’s truth commission found state forces committed acts of genocide.
That brutal conflict ended in 1996, but nearly three decades after the peace accords were signed, Mayan leader Mario Simón Chávez says the violence has not truly ended. “Fortunately, Guatemala is no longer experiencing an armed conflict,” he said. “However, the internal armed conflict has left indelible scars on our people.”
Chávez said Indigenous communities continue to experience structural forms of conflict through state corruption, dispossession of their lands, and attacks on their self-determination. “For our people... Read more
