Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
pressed his desire to restore law and order, eliminate corruption, and defeat the guerrilla
insurgency, allowing for the establishment of a true democracy.
On the surface things did seem to get better, particularly in the cities, thanks to an odd
mix of heavy-handed discipline and strict moral guidelines governing all facets of govern-
mentoperations.Montt,forexample,madearegularshowofexecutionsofallegedcrimin-
als before firing squads.Healso offered amnesty tothe guerrillas duringthe month ofJune
1982, but only a handful of these accepted. Some later accounts of the Guatemalan civil
war attribute this to communities' being either held hostage by guerrilla occupation and
unable to make the trip down from the mountains or simply too frightened and distrustful
of the military.
Whatever the reason, the cool response to Montt's amnesty offer unleashed a new wave
of counterinsurgency terror against the guerrillas and the indigenous peoples believed to
be aiding and abetting them. Under a scorched-earth campaign, entire villages were des-
troyed, with survivors being resettled into a series of so-called “model villages,” allowing
the army to keep a close watch on the peasantry while indoctrinating them with anti-Com-
munist rhetoric. The repression was made worse by a new system of conscripted labor in
theformofcivildefensepatrols(PACs)composedofruralpeasantscontrolledbythearmy.
PACswereforcedtomakeroutinenightpatrolsandreportanysuspiciousactivities.Failure
to do so would result in their own suspicion in the army's eyes, meaning further reprisals
ontheirvillages.Inthisway,twomodern-dayvariantsofimportantcolonialstructuressur-
vived well into Guatemala's recent history, the
congregación
and the
encomienda.
An estimated 100,000 of Guatemala's indigenous Mayan descendants fled the violence,
flooding refugee camps in neighboring Mexico or migrating farther north to the United
States during the reign of Lucas García and Ríos Montt.
Cerezo and the Democratic Opening
Ríos Montt was eventually overthrown in August 1983 after just over a year in power by
a military coup with U.S. backing. The underlying ideal was to get Guatemala firmly on
the road back to democracy. Elections were called to take place in 1985 and General Mejía
Víctores wasinstalled asaninterim chief-of-state. Repression inthecountryside continued
to escalate under the military's tireless scorched earth campaign. The Ixil Triangle alone
saw the displacement of 72 percent of its population and the destruction of 49 villages.
Totals for Guatemala at this time included the destruction of 440 villages and more than
100,000 dead. In this context, the first free election in more than three decades took place.
A new constitution was also drawn up.
Vinicio Cerezo Arévalo, a Christian Democrat, won the election with an overwhelming
majorityofthevoteandwide-spreadhopeforchangeinGuatemalawiththecountryfirmly
on the road to democracy. It was clear that the military still held the cards, however, and
kept Cerezo under a tight leash via the Estado Mayor Presidencial, a notorious military se-