Country: Guatemala

Group: Mam

Date Finalized: 3/1/20

Team: Aracely Esquer (lead), Gabriel Cardenas, Ray Gerard Regorgo

Content warning: genocide, homicide, war

Approximate Time Period: 1960-1996

     The Mam are a Maya indigenous group that occupy parts of Mexico and the highlands of Guatemala.  They were possibly affected by the Guatemalan genocide which grew out of political turmoil in the mid-20th century. After the overthrow of president Jacobo Árbenz in 1954, military suppression and dictatorship resulted in the Guatemalan Civil War (1960-1996) (Kistler, 2014). In 1980, the Guatemalan Army established “Operation Sophia” to oppose the guerilla movement, targeting the indigenous Maya with the intent of destroying civilian bases. In three years, 626 villages were destroyed, 1.5 million were displaced, 150,000 sought refuge in neighboring Mexico, and over 200,000 people were killed, marked as “disappeared”, abducted, or arrested. The government and private death squads continued the violence and oppression against indigenous Maya by destroying infrastructure, land, livestock, water supplies, and scared places (Holocaust Museum Houston, nd). In 1996, the government signed the Oslo Accords with the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) to organize a Commission of Historical Clarification (CEH) and “the CEH concluded the army committed genocide against four specific groups: the Ixil Mayas; the Q’anjob’al and Chuj Mayas; the K’iche’ Mayas of Joyabaj, Zacualpa and Chiché; and the Achi Mayas” (Holocaust Museum Houston, nd). According to Oettler, CEH claimed 83% of the victims were Maya and 91% of crimes were committed between 1978 and 1984 (Oettler, 2008). What is considered the “Silent Holocaust” lead to lasting negative views of the military, the conviction of several military personnel of crimes of genocide, and generational trauma of indigenous groups. To better emphasize the depth of these attacks, the United Nations organized a Commission of Historical Evidence. There, it clearly defines the indigenous Maya as victims of deliberate attacks from government policies. Although it is difficult to find sources that directly relate to the Mam Maya during the genocide, it is plausible that they were targeted by “Operation Sophia,” like other Maya groups. The overall data quality was high for the Guatemalan genocide (3) as credible sources were found describing genocide in Guatemala, but extremely low (1) in terms of how the genocide affected the Mam Maya as no information was located on whether the Mam specifically were impacted.

Sources

  1. Holocaust Museum Houston (n.d.) Genocide in Guatemala. Retrieved from: https://hmh.org/library/research/genocide-in-guatemala-guide/#
  2. Kistler, S. A. (2014). Murder, memory, and the Maya. Latin American Research Review, 49(1), 251–260. https://doi.org/10.1353/lar.2014.0014
  3. Oettler A. (2008). Guatemala: The state of research. SciencesPo. Retrieved from: http://bo-k2s.sciences-po.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/fr/document/guatemala-state-research, ISSN 1961-9898