The Guatemalan Civil War was a conflict which raged in Guatemala in Central America for most of the second half of the twentieth century. The civil war is usually identified as having commenced in 1960 when a left-wing guerilla group commenced a conflict against the authoritarian government of General Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes, and to last have lasted down to 1996. It could be identified just as easily as having started in 1954 when the democratic government of Jacobo Arbenz was overthrown by a US-backed coup in response to the possibility of the nationalization of the United Fruit Company, which had extensive influence over the Guatemalan economy at the time. The civil war went through peaks and valleys. The worst period was in the early 1980s when the government and military effectively engaged in a campaign of genocide against the Maya and other native groups within the country. The end of the Cold War led to de-escalation as the United States reduced its support for extreme right-wing governments in parts of the world like Latin America. The civil war led to the flight of hundreds of thousands of Guatemalans from their home country. Many ended up moving to Mexico or the United States where they have formed substantial diaspora communities in places like Los Angeles in California.[1]
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Guatemalan Civil War chronology of eventsGuatemalan Civil War chronology of events
Guatemala has a long history of conflict between right and left-wing elements within its politics. In the second half of the nineteenth century, after it became independent of the First Mexican Empire, and into the twentieth century, this involved a tug-of-war that saw extended periods of left-wing democratic rule, such as the liberal governments of 1871 to 1898, followed by right-leaning dictatorships such as that of Manuel Estrada Cabrera. It was Cabrera who began granting the United Fruit Company huge concessions to exploit the country’s land and natural resources in return for American backing for his regime and funding to develop Guatemala’s infrastructure. A general strike in 1944 reversed the rightward shift of the country and ushered in a new period of left-wing reform, the Guatemalan Revolution.[2]
The Guatemalan Civil War was intrinsically connected to the coup d’état of 1954, in which the reform movement was overthrown by a military intervention back by the US Central Intelligence Agency. The spur to intervention was the possibility that the United Fruit Company’s assets in Guatemala would be nationalized. The coup of 1954 led to a volatile period in which Guatemala was largely under military rule, though while grasping towards holding elections. Eventually in 1960 this led to an attempted coup again by a cadre of left-wing officers within the military, one of several revolts that the military president, Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes, faced. This revolt in 1960 triggered the commencement of the long-running civil war.[3]
The war was not a straight-forward conflict. It ebbed and flowed over the decades. After an initial period of violence there was an effort to re-establish civilian government in 1966 and Cesar Menendez was elected as President. This failed to curb various counter-insurgency movements in the countryside as a multi-party conflict developed. By the 1970s the country was back under military rule and murders and abductions were a near daily reality of life. The most intense period came following the seizure of power by General Efrain Rios Montt in 1982.[4] Under his rule the worst of the Guatemalan genocide occurred and the constitution was suspended. The genocide of the Maya and other native groups during the civil war led to the death of an estimated 200,000 people.[5]
Montt’s ousting led to a gradual move back towards elections. The process was slow, but with the ending of the Cold War and increased US support for a negotiated settlement, agreements were finally worked out between the government and the main opposition army, the Guatemalan Revolutionary National Unity, in 1996. There have been many issues since, notably the attempted return to politics of Montt after the civil war ended, while Guatemala is a country ravaged by issues such as crime, human rights abuses, political corruption and gang violence all destabilizing the country in modern times.[6]
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Extent of migration caused by Guatemalan Civil WarExtent of migration caused by Guatemalan Civil War
The civil war era saw upwards of a million people displaced in a country of just over four million when it commenced in 1960. A large proportion of these were internally displaced within the country. Others left altogether, drifting over the borders to countries like Mexico and then further northwards to the United States. This northern migration became particularly intense in the late 1970s and early 1980s when the violence was as its worst. The largest focus of foreign migration after a certain period in the civil war was to California and the city of Los Angeles in particular, as a diaspora community here grew and drew more and more Guatemalan refugees over time.[7]
Demographic impact of the Guatemalan Civil WarDemographic impact of the Guatemalan Civil War
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The demographic impact of the Guatemalan Civil War on the actual population of the country appears negligible. Such is the rate of population increase in Guatemala over the last three-quarters of a century that it has nullified any immigration. The country’s population today is understood to be well above 18 million and growing. Therefore the civil war has not caused a decline in population or even really arrested the rapid growth.[8]
Conversely the civil war has created one of the world’s largest Guatemalan diaspora communities outside of the country itself in Los Angeles County in the United States. In the 1990 federal census the Guatemalan population there was recorded as being 159,000 strong.[9] That figure increased to 265,000 by the time of the 2020 census.[10] Much of the subsequent expansion was owing to natural growth rather than migration and the most intense period of expansion because of immigration was during the pre-1990 era, though Guatemalans have continued to arrive to the United States ever since. Many people in Los Angeles County will be able to trace their genealogy back to a close ancestor that left Guatemala during the era of the civil war.[11]
See alsoSee also
Explore more about the Guatemalan Civil WarExplore more about the Guatemalan Civil War
- Guatemala, Baptisms, 1730-1917 records collection on MyHeritage
- Guatemala, Civil Registration, 1877-2008 records collection on MyHeritage
- Guatemala, Marriages, 1750-1930 records collection on MyHeritage
- Guatemala, Deaths, 1760-1880 records collection on MyHeritage
- 1877 Guatemala, Ciudad de Guatemala Census records collection on MyHeritage
References
- ↑ https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/latin_america-jan-june11-timeline_03-07
- ↑ Joseph A. Pitti, ‘Jorge Ubico and Guatemalan Politics in the 1920s’ (PhD dissertation, University of New Mexico, 1975).
- ↑ Michelle Denise Getchell, ‘Revisiting the 1954 Coup in Guatemala’, in Journal of Cold War Studies, Vol. 17, No. 2 (Spring, 2015), pp. 73–102.
- ↑ https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/latin_america-jan-june11-timeline_03-07
- ↑ https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/guatemalan-genocide
- ↑ https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2025/country-chapters/guatemala
- ↑ https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/social-sciences-and-humanities/guatemalan-immigrants
- ↑ https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/guatemala-population/
- ↑ Jonathan Solares, ‘Guatemalan Migration to Los Angeles’, in The Toro Historical Review, Vol. 10, No. 1 (2010), pp. 78–97.
- ↑ https://www.laalmanac.com/population/po18.php
- ↑ https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/2025/10/23/to-understand-the-experience-of-guatemalan-workers-in-los-angeles-we-also-need-to-understand-the-influence-of-racialization-and-global-capitalism/