Guatemalan Civil War

Leftist guerilla groups in the nation started a 36-year-long military campaign against the Guatemalan state in the aftermath of the revolution in Cuba in 1959. The conflict lasted the longest in modern Latin American history, costing hundreds of thousands of lives and leaving millions of people homeless.

The unprecedented violence perpetrated during the conflict against people, particularly those of Mayan heritage, is still remembered. Paramilitary murder squads that are associated with or directly controlled by the state and local landowners may be responsible for a large portion of the bloodshed. It involved the systematic devastation of towns, arbitrary execution, sexual assault, torture, and body mutilation.

The paramilitaries' counterinsurgency operations aimed at eradicating the rebel population marked the beginning of the conflict's darkest phase. In the worst-affected areas, between 70 and 90 percent of the population perished during this time; the U.N. has now recognized this as a genocide.

Date: 13 November 1960 – 29 December 1996(36 years, 1 month, 2 weeks and 2 days)

Location: Guatemala

Result: Peace accord signed in 1996

Territorial changes: Guatemala border

• Franja Transversal del Norte