Exhumations of mass graves in Rabinal

Maya indigenous people bury their dead. They are witness to the exhumation of mass graves at Rabinal, where thousands of indigenous Guatemalan people were massacred under the orders of the infamous military dictator Rios Montt. Rabinal, Baja Verapaz, Guatemala 1996

José Efraín Ríos Montt was a Guatemalan military officer and politician who served as de facto President of Guatemala in 1982–83. His brief tenure as chief executive was one of the bloodiest periods in the long-running Guatemalan Civil War. Ríos Montt's counter-insurgency strategies significantly weakened the Marxist guerrillas organized under the umbrella of the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG), while also leading to accusations of war crimes and genocide perpetrated by the Guatemalan Army under his leadership. Ríos Montt's strategy amounted to a scorched earth campaign targeted against the indigenous Maya population, particularly in the departments of Quiché, Huehuetenango, and Baja Verapaz.

According to the 1999 report by the UN-sponsored Historical Clarification Commission (CEH), this resulted in the annihilation of nearly 600 villages. One instance was the Plan de Sánchez massacre in Rabinal, Baja Verapaz, in July 1982, which saw over 250 people killed. Tens of thousands of peasant farmers fled over the border into southern Mexico. In 1982, an Amnesty International report estimated that over 10,000 indigenous Guatemalans and peasant farmers were killed from March to July of that year, and that 100,000 rural villagers were forced to flee their homes.[27] According to more recent estimates presented by the CEH, tens of thousands of non-combatants were killed during Ríos Montt's tenure as head of state. At the height of the bloodshed, reports put the number of disappearances and killings at more than 3,000 per month.

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Contained in galleries: Guatemala Moves Towards Peace after Civil War

Maya indigenous people bury their dead. They are witness to the exhumation of mass graves at Rabinal, where thousands of indigenous Guatemalan people were massacred under the orders of the infamous military dictator Rios Montt. Rabinal, Baja Verapaz, Guatemala 1996<br />
<br />
José Efraín Ríos Montt was a Guatemalan military officer and politician who served as de facto President of Guatemala in 1982–83. His brief tenure as chief executive was one of the bloodiest periods in the long-running Guatemalan Civil War. Ríos Montt's counter-insurgency strategies significantly weakened the Marxist guerrillas organized under the umbrella of the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG), while also leading to accusations of war crimes and genocide perpetrated by the Guatemalan Army under his leadership. Ríos Montt's strategy amounted to a scorched earth campaign targeted against the indigenous Maya population, particularly in the departments of Quiché, Huehuetenango, and Baja Verapaz.<br />
<br />
According to the 1999 report by the UN-sponsored Historical Clarification Commission (CEH), this resulted in the annihilation of nearly 600 villages. One instance was the Plan de Sánchez massacre in Rabinal, Baja Verapaz, in July 1982, which saw over 250 people killed. Tens of thousands of peasant farmers fled over the border into southern Mexico. In 1982, an Amnesty International report estimated that over 10,000 indigenous Guatemalans and peasant farmers were killed from March to July of that year, and that 100,000 rural villagers were forced to flee their homes.[27] According to more recent estimates presented by the CEH, tens of thousands of non-combatants were killed during Ríos Montt's tenure as head of state. At the height of the bloodshed, reports put the number of disappearances and killings at more than 3,000 per month.