A view of Captain Carlos Rodolfo Muñoz Piloña, center, as he walks down a hallway in the Guatemalan National Palace on March 23, 1982, after the military coup d'etat that installed General Ríos Montt into power. Captain Muñoz was the mastermind behind the military coup.
Alejandro Maldonado Aguirre, the presidential candidate from the Democracia Cristiana Guatemalteca, Guatemalan Christian Democracy, DCG, and representing a coalition of political parties, right, and his running mate Jorge Carpio Nicolle, center, converse with local civilians while campaigning before the 1982 elections in rural Quiché department, Guatemala, February 1, 1982. The Christian Democrats were running in the elections against the civilian candidate Ángel Aníbal Guevara, who was backed by the military and chosen successor to outgoing president Fernándo Romeo Lucas García, along with other opposition groups. When Guevara was declared the winner on March 7, the opposition candidates protested electoral fraud. Two weeks later on March 23, General Efraín Ríos Montt initiated a coup d'état led by a military junta and all cabinet ministers were replaced.
Alejandro Maldonado Aguirre, the presidential candidate from the Democracia Cristiana Guatemalteca, Guatemalan Christian Democracy, DCG, and representing a coalition of political parties, center right, and politician Vinicio Cerezo, far right, at a campaign rally before the 1982 elections in rural Quiché department, Guatemala, February 1, 1982. The Christian Democrats were running in the elections against the civilian candidate Ángel Aníbal Guevara, who was backed by the military and chosen successor to outgoing president Fernándo Romeo Lucas García, along with other opposition groups. When Guevara was declared the winner on March 7, the opposition candidates protested electoral fraud. Two weeks later on March 23, General Efraín Ríos Montt initiated a coup d'état led by a military junta and all cabinet ministers were replaced.
Cardinal Mario Casariego y Acevedo (1909-1983), the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Guatemala, stands for a photograph in front of the Metropolitan Cathedral in downtown Guatemala City, Guatemala, February 1, 1983. The Cardinal maintained close relations with many political and military officials and was considered to be an ally of the authoritarian state regime. Casariego died of a heart attack on June 15, 1983.
Guatemalan army soldiers check bus passengers for weapons in Guatemala City, Guatemala, February 1, 1982. Tighter security measures were being taken due to the upcoming presidential elections scheduled for March 7, 1982. In the 36-year domestic armed conflict lasting from 1960-1996, an estimated 200,000 people were killed, up to 45,000 civilians were forcibly disappeared, and between 500,000 and 1.5 million people were internally displaced or fled the country. Guatemala's Historical Clarification Commission determined 93 percent of the violence was perpetrated by the state.
Police and fire department workers attend to a dead paramilitary bank guard who was shot and killed in downtown Guatemala City, Guatemala on January 1, 1982. The guard was shot by an unknown assailant and it was presumed to be an assassination. The revolutionary movement reached its height between 1980 and 1981 just as the indiscriminate violence of the military's counterinsurgency operations was set to escalate. But by early 1982 the urban insurgency in Guatemala City would be almost completely eradicated by government security forces and paramilitary units after taking serious losses to its infrastructure through the state's dismantling of unions and other popular movements.
Brigadier General Óscar Humberto Mejía Víctores speaks to the media during a press conference following a coup d’état he led, Guatemala City, Guatemala, early August 1983. Mejía Víctores (1930-2016) forced out President Efraín Ríos Montt and ruled Guatemala from August 1983 to January 1986.
Brigadier General Óscar Humberto Mejía Víctores, center, speaks to the media during a press conference following a coup d’état he led, Guatemala City, Guatemala, early August 1983. Mejía Víctores (1930-2016) forced out President Efraín Ríos Montt and ruled Guatemala from August 1983 to January 1986.
A group of international journalists are shown captured weapons from a guerrilla safe house found by the Guatemalan Army in the regional military garrison run by Colonel Byron Lima Estrada in Santa Cruz del Quiché, Guatemala, February 1, 1982. Col. Lima Estrada was commander of the Quiché department army garrison. He received U.S. Army counterintelligence training at Fort Benning, Georgia, the School of the Americas, and instruction from the U.S. Army Mobile Training Team (MTT) and the U.S. Military Assistance Program (MAP). Following his term as intelligence chief, Lima Estrada served as senior officer in key operational units during the Guatemalan Armed Forces' "scorched earth" campaigns against the Maya population in the highlands. Lima Estrada was convicted in 2001 for the 1998 murder of Catholic Bishop Juan José Gerardi Conedera, which remains one of the most infamous crimes of Guatemala's post-war history.
View of a cache of weapons and propaganda materials recently seized by the military from a Ejército Guerrillero de los Pobres, Guerrilla Army of the Poor, EGP, safe house at the regional military garrison in Santa Cruz del Quiché, Guatemala, February 1, 1982. The EGP emerged in 1967 from dissident factions of the guerrilla organization Fuerzas Armadas Rebeldes, Rebel Armed Forces, FAR, Catholic followers of liberation theology, and students affiliated with the Juventud Patriótica del Trabajo, JPT, a youth wing of the Partido Guatemalteco del Trabajo, Guatemalan Labor Party, PGT. The EGP established themselves in the highlands where civilian support for their cause was high. Among their demands were land reform, access to healthcare, and a respect for human rights, particularly for the Maya population of the country.
View of a cache of weapons and propaganda materials recently seized by the military from a Ejército Guerrillero de los Pobres, Guerrilla Army of the Poor, EGP, safe house with General Benedicto Lucas García, far right, at the regional military garrison in Santa Cruz del Quiché, Guatemala, February 1, 1982. The EGP emerged in 1967 from dissident factions of the guerrilla organization Fuerzas Armadas Rebeldes, Rebel Armed Forces, FAR, Catholic followers of liberation theology, and students affiliated with the Juventud Patriótica del Trabajo, JPT, a youth wing of the Partido Guatemalteco del Trabajo, Guatemalan Labor Party, PGT. The EGP established themselves in the highlands where civilian support for their cause was high. Among their demands were land reform, access to healthcare, and a respect for human rights, particularly for the Maya population of the country.
Colonel Byron Lima Estrada, center, shows a group of international journalists a cache of weapons recently found by the military in a Ejército Guerrillero de los Pobres, Guerrilla Army of the Poor, EGP, safe house at the regional military garrison in Santa Cruz del Quiché, Guatemala, February 1, 1982. Col. Lima Estrada was commander of the Quiché department army garrison. He received U.S. Army counterintelligence training at Fort Benning, Georgia, the School of the Americas, and instruction from the U.S. Army Mobile Training Team (MTT) and the U.S. Military Assistance Program (MAP). Following his term as intelligence chief, Lima Estrada served as senior officer in key operational units during the Guatemalan Armed Forces' "scorched earth" campaigns in the 1980s. Lima Estrada was convicted in 2001 for the 1998 murder of Catholic Bishop Juan José Gerardi Conedera, which is considered one of the most infamous crimes of Guatemala's post-war history.
A group of international journalists are shown a cache of weapons recently found by the military in a Ejército Guerrillero de los Pobres, Guerrilla Army of the Poor, EGP, safe house with General Benedicto Lucas García, far right, at the regional military garrison in Santa Cruz del Quiché, Guatemala, February 1, 1982. Colonel Byron Lima Estrada, the Santa Cruz del Quiché garrison commander, center, observes the guerrilla equipment. In 1981 the military regime and the Guatemalan army initiated a brutal counterinsurgency program of scorched earth tactics to consolidate control over civilians and counteract the influence of the guerrilla insurgency. The genocidal policies enacted by President Fernando Romeo Lucas García and later by Efraín Ríos Montt were also intended to eradicate the culture and identity of the indigenous population. For his role as army general in the internal armed conflict, General Benedicto Lucas García was sentenced on May 23, 2018 to 58 years in prison for crimes against humanity, aggravated sexual violence, and enforced disappearance. Col. Lima Estrada was convicted in 2001 for the 1998 murder of Catholic Bishop Juan José Gerardi Conedera, which is considered one of the most infamous crimes of Guatemala's post-war history.
A Guatemalan army soldier looks over a cache of weapons recently found by the military in a Ejército Guerrillero de los Pobres, Guerrilla Army of the Poor, EGP, safe house at the regional military garrison in Santa Cruz del Quiché, Guatemala, February 1, 1982. The EGP emerged in 1967 from dissident factions of the guerrilla organization Fuerzas Armadas Rebeldes, Rebel Armed Forces, FAR, Catholic followers of liberation theology, and students affiliated with the Juventud Patriótica del Trabajo, JPT, a youth wing of the Partido Guatemalteco del Trabajo, Guatemalan Labor Party, PGT. The EGP established themselves in the highlands where civilian support for their cause was high. Among their demands were land reform, access to healthcare, and a respect for human rights, particularly for the Maya population of the country.
Guatemalan army Colonel Byron Lima Estrada, center right, the commander of the Quiché department army garrison, looks over captured weapons and explosives found in a Ejército Guerrillero de los Pobres, Guerrilla Army of the Poor, EGP, safe house outside of Santa Cruz del Quiche, Guatemala, February 1, 1982. Lima Estrada received U.S. Army counterintelligence training at Fort Benning, Georgia, the School of the Americas, and instruction from the U.S. Army Mobile Training Team (MTT) and the U.S. Military Assistance Program (MAP). Following his term as intelligence chief, he served as senior officer in key operational units during the Guatemalan Armed Forces' "scorched earth" campaigns in the 1980s. Lima Estrada was convicted in 2001 for the 1998 murder of Catholic Bishop Juan José Gerardi Conedera, which is considered one of the most infamous crimes of Guatemala's post-war history.
A group of international journalists are shown captured weapons from a guerrilla safe house found by the Guatemalan Army in the regional military garrison run by Colonel Byron Lima Estrada, left, in Santa Cruz del Quiché, Guatemala, February 1, 1982. Col. Lima Estrada was commander of the Quiché department army garrison. He received U.S. Army counterintelligence training at Fort Benning, Georgia, the School of the Americas, and instruction from the U.S. Army Mobile Training Team (MTT) and the U.S. Military Assistance Program (MAP). Following his term as intelligence chief, Lima Estrada served as senior officer in key operational units during the Guatemalan Armed Forces' "scorched earth" campaigns against the Maya population in the highlands. Lima Estrada was convicted in 2001 for the 1998 murder of Catholic Bishop Juan José Gerardi Conedera, which remains one of the most infamous crimes of Guatemala's post-war history.
A stone Catholic church stands in the rural highlands of Quiché department, Guatemala, May 1, 1984. Guatemala was introduced to the Catholic religion during the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 16th century.
Wooden religious statues stand near the front altar of a Catholic church in Santa Cruz del Quiché, Guatemala, January 1, 1982. Guatemala was introduced to Catholicism during the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 16th century.
View of carved religious figures near the front altar of a Roman Catholic church in Antigua, Guatemala, May 10, 1982. Guatemala was introduced to Catholicism during the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 16th century and the Roman Catholic Church continues to dominate the country's religious society. However by the mid-1980s, Protestantism and particularly the evangelical movement was gaining popularity and it is estimated that Protestants accounted for approximately one third of Guatemala's total population at that time.
View of a carved religious figure near the front altar of a Roman Catholic church in Antigua, Guatemala, May 10, 1982. Guatemala was introduced to Catholicism during the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 16th century and the Roman Catholic Church has continued to dominate the country's religious society. However by the mid-1980s, Protestantism and particularly the evangelical movement was gaining popularity and it is estimated that Protestants accounted for approximately one third of Guatemala's total population at that time.