The Guatemalan Civil War was a civil war in Guatemala fought from 1960 to 1996 between the government of Guatemala and various leftist rebel groups. The government forces have been condemned for committing genocide against the Maya population of Guatemala during the civil war and for widespread human rights violations against civilians. The context of the struggle was based on longstanding issues of unfair land distribution. Wealthy Guatemalans, mainly European-descended, and foreign companies such as the American United Fruit Company had dominated control over much of the land, and paid almost zero taxes in return – leading to conflicts with the rural indigenous poor who worked the land under miserable terms.
Ixil people carrying their loved ones' remains after an exhumation in the Ixil Triangle in February 2012.
President Manuel Estrada Cabrera's official portrait from his last presidential term. During his government, the American United Fruit Company became a major economic and political force in Guatemala.
John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State of the Eisenhower administration and board member of the United Fruit Company.
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same state .
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.
The term is a calque of Latin bellum civile which was used to refer to the various civil wars of the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC.
Members of the Red Guards during the Finnish Civil War of 1918
The destruction wrought on Granollers after a raid by German aircraft on 31 May 1938 during the Spanish Civil War
Aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg, American Civil War, 1863
Tanks in the streets of Addis Ababa after rebels seized the capital during the Ethiopian Civil War (1991)
