This section provides a brief analysis of human rights violations in the framework of the military offensives against the civilian population in the highland regions including the municipality of Nebaj, in El Quiché department, and Rabinal in Baja Verapaz department. It also examines several forms of repression used in the southern region in the context of the government’s counterinsurgency strategy and their impact on the municipality of Santo Domingo Suchitepéquez. It is important to point out that terror was applied differently in the highland regions and the Southern Coast. The following map shows the location of these municipalities.

Map 5
Location of the Municipalities of Nebaj, Rabinal and Santo Domingo Suchitepéquez

Source: CIIDH

Methods of state terror in Guatemala can be differentiated based on two basic criteria: whether overt or clandestine methods were used, and whether it was massive or selective in scope. Terror has been applied through a combination of methods and scope depending on the regime’s needs (Figueroa: 1990). Among other factors, these needs relate to agricultural production for export and to assuring a permanent supply of manual labor in the immediate geographical area.

From this standpoint, the counterinsurgency strategy would use different methods in rural highland areas and the capitalist production centers of the Southern Coast or the northeast. In the highlands, permanent home to the indigenous population, considered to be a potential insurgent support base, and geographically isolated from the rest of the country, all forms of consensus or negotiation had been ruptured unilaterally by the government.

In the other areas, with important coffee, rubber, cattle, sugarcane, and cotton production, the local population did not meet the needs of the agro-export companies. This made it necessary to maintain a large migrant population from the highlands which, although strictly controlled, retained some room for negotiation to the extent necessary to sustain the basic operations of agricultural production indispensable to the system.

This situation, in which agro-export production was of utmost importance, precluded overt, large-scale military offensives in the Southern Coast and other areas with similar characteristics. In this case the economic costs of such operations carried more weight than the political and social costs.

With these criteria in mind, an analysis follows, first of the military operations and strategic offensives in the highlands, Nebaj and Rabinal being two target areas, and second, of the forms of control and other methods utilized in the area of Santo Domingo Suchitepéquez between July 1980 and June 1984.

In general terms, it is estimated that during this period, military offensives took the lives of nearly 30 per cent of the population in the municipality of Nebaj, El Quiché (CITGUA: 1992), and 20 per cent in Rabinal, Baja Verapaz (EAFG: 1995). They also caused massive displacement of the survivors.

Although state terror was already rooted the areas examined in this report, with a few notable exceptions it had been clandestine and selective. In Nebaj and Rabinal, significant conflicts had occurred since the early seventies between the local population and powerful political and economic sectors.

In none of the cases had agreements been reached which satisfied both parties and could lead to political solutions to the conflicts. This was mainly due to the intransigence of large landowners and contractors in Nebaj, and to the National Electrical Institute (INDE) in Rabinal. The tables and graphs that follow present a summary of some of the results of repression in these municipalities during the period studied. All of the information presented here was drawn from oral testimony and includes only those cases collected and analyzed by CIIDH and GAM.

It is important to point out that the information about human rights violations in Guatemala used in this analysis cannot be considered absolute or definitive. The data here constitutes only a small sample of the cases that occurred between 1980 and 1984. Nonetheless, their statistical worth may be a useful contribution to scientific research and the search for truth.

As of June 1, 1996, CIIDH had conducted and analyzed 7,423 interviews; some 3,000 additional interviews had been conducted and were in the process of being analyzed. Of the 7,423 interviews in the database, 2,616 fulfill the following conditions:

1. They mention one or more acts that occurred during the period between July 1, 1980 and June 30, 1984.

2. They mention one or more of the following viola- tions: individual murder, multiple murder, corpse found, kidnapping, disappearance, torture.

3. They mention at least one victim identified by one name and one surname.

The remaining 4,807 interviews cover other periods, other types of violations, or do not contain specific data on specific victims. Of the 2,616 interviews that fulfill the three criteria above, 808 interviews discussed events that happened in Nebaj, Rabinal, and/or Santo Domingo Suchitepéquez. These interviews are divided among the three municipalities and among the eight semesters as described below in Table 1.0.

Table 1.0
Number of Interviews by Semester and Municipality

Note: Some 808 interviews mentioned one or more violations that occurred during the period 1 July 1980 and 30 June 1984, in one or more of the three municipalities. In each interview, the witness may have related incidents which occurred in one or more municipalities over one or more semesters. Therefore the number of interviews summed across semesters or municipalities is different from the total number actually done.
Source: CIIDH

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