Country: Guatemala

Group: Mam

Date Finalized: 5/4/2020

Team: Rayna Castillo (lead), Sophia Agne, Aracely Esquer, Giselle Chavez Lopez

The Mam are one subgroup of the indigenous Maya in Guatemala (Minority Rights Group, n.d.). Although there are not many records that explicitly state that the Mam have been targeted in cases pertaining to ethnocide, our group was able to find evidence about the Maya as a whole. The Maya population generally (and what may include the Mam) has experienced threats to their identity and livelihood by the Guatemalan government. For example, in the era of the Guatemalan Civil War (1960-1996), the Maya protested against the government to advocate for greater equality and inclusion, specifically concerning their language and culture (Minority Rights Group,  n.d.). In retaliation, the Guatemalan Army established what was known as “Operation Sophia,” which targeted the Maya who supported this guerilla movement (HMH, n.d.). According to the Holocaust Museum Houston website, “the army destroyed 626 villages, killed or ‘disappeared’ more than 200,000 people and displaced an additional 1.5 million” (HMH, n.d.).  An additional tactic used by the Guatemalan government involved the destruction of Mayan land, livestock, water supplies, and sacred places (HMH, n.d.). Destroying elements that are essential to both the Maya population’s livelihood and cultural practices is considered an act of ethnocide as it pertains to our codebook. Even today, there is no official recognition of Mayan culture by the Guatemalan government (Minority Rights Group,  n.d.). Some common issues arising from this include a lack of protection for their sacred grounds, non-Mayan dress codes in public and private schools, and a denial of bilingual education—even in areas that are densely populated with indigenous groups (Minority Rights Group,  n.d.). Land issues continue to serve as affronts to the Mayan identity, as the government sells land to foreign entities despite an admitted concern that the projects could “lead to ethnocide” if they are not carried out appropriately (HMH, n.d.). While current evidence suggests acts of ethnocide have been and are affecting the Maya as a whole, there is limited literature on the Mam subgroup specifically. For this reason, the data quality would be a 2/3.

Sources

  1. Holocaust Museum Houston (HMH) (n.d.). Genocide in Guatemala. Retrieved from: https://hmh.org/library/research/genocide-in-guatemala-guide/#
  2. Minority Rights Group. (n.d.). Maya. Retrieved from https://minorityrights.org/minorities/maya-2/
  3. Minority Rights Group International (2008, July). World Directory of Minorities. https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/eoir/legacy/2014/02/19/Overview_25.pdf