Human Rights Violations in Guatemala Essay

Imagine for a moment what it would be like if the entire population of Sonoma County, California was killed, and twenty years later not many people knew a great deal about it. When over 500,000 people, primarily Tutsis, were killed in the Rwandan genocide in 1994, it was a great tragedy. However, no one rushed to the country’s aid. Now it is vital that the horrors of the instance that violated the human rights of so many, is not forgotten. Human rights are the universal actions and objects that all people are entitled to because they are human. Human rights have been violated in numerous ways over time, typically as a result of a person in power having their own best interests in mind rather than the peoples´. Various groups, such as Amnesty

The extracurricular activity I attended for this report on peace studies was Dr. Catherine Nolin’s public lecture called “Transnational Ruptures in a Time of Impunity: Genocide, Mining and Migration”. Dr. Nolin is an associate professor at the university of Northern British Columbia. Her focus was placed upon the past and present violence in Guatemala. More specifically, the genocide of the 1980s, the migration that followed, and the role of Canadian mining companies in present mining operations within Guatemala. Dr. Nolin visited indigenous communities in Guatemala, where she listened to the people’s stories related to crimes that Canadian mining companies had committed. These crimes included rape and murder, so the professor went back to Guatemala with a lawyer who was able to start legal claims in Canada against the mining companies. The story does not start with the Canadian mining companies as this was after the terrible genocide.

(intro)the 2009- 2010 leaders and supporters of the FNL, The Front of Struggle, were killed by drug hitmen. Ovidio ortiz, a life long leader of the heath union, was a target for the massacre. He was hit with eight bullets. Six days after the health worker massacre on march 30th a passing vehicle shot at residents who gathered at the neighborhood store, only 8 were injured. (history of death squads) The guatemalan army slaughtered politics and suspected

During a civil war, the country 's is divided into two ideas. In a civil war, it gets bloody to the point that one kills their own blood because of their different points of views. When this happens, a generation tends to be lost. Forgot like the concept survival of the fittest; where one party wins and gets in control of the country. This happened in Guatemala during their thirty year civil war. It began in 1954, when President Arbenze left office. Reasons were, he had some socialist ideas that the United States interpreted as Communist ideology, such as making the United Fruit Company national (Burrett, 1954). This worried the United States, and planned to to impeach Arbenze. Methods such as instigating a civil war that encouraged

Guatemala used to be the center of the Maya culture during the first millennium A.D. In 1523, Spanish came to this land, destroyed the Maya culture, and made it become a colony for around 300 years. In 1821, Guatemala won its independence. This country suffered a 36-year civil war during the second half of last century, which killed more than 200,000 people and created about 1 million refugees. In 1996, the government ended the conflict formally by signing a peace agreement. Since then, the political stability

The Guatemalan civil war began because the government and military were greatly abusing the citizen’s human rights. In result to this communist led gorillas began an active political war of terror in 1961. There underlying cause of this is the discontent both politically and economically between the people and the government. Economically the government supported the domination of an elite class in society. This

Giselle Portenier’s “Guatemala: Killer’s Paradise” is a documentary released in 2007 that focuses on the increasingly rising murder rate of women in Guatemala that largely go unsolved. This documentary illustrates the persistent gender expectations and perpetuate gendered violence since the Guatemalan Civil War as well as the lack of proper response from government institutions. Gender expectations and prejudices that arose out of the Guatemalan Civil War have developed a machoist, misogynistic society that is strife with physical and sexual violence toward women through which this societal violence has been entrenched through state inaction.

Modern Guatemala has a history of being ruled by either harsh military leaders or corrupt, business focused politicians. Tired of being ruled by repressive military regimes, rebels—armed and directed from Cuba—waged war against the government. The rebels, divided into four groups, stuck to guerilla tactics and targeted businesses and government buildings. Fighting between the rebels and the government continued for 36 years until America cut off aid to the government and a democratic constitution was drafted (Shields,

In Guatemala, a revolution was now on the rise and was beginning to obtain many of the people in this land. It lasted over 36 years and saw more

Guatemala is a large Latin American country with only a population of 12,701,000. This country is sometimes misjudged because many people see it as a tourist destination, but sadly it is a very dangerous place to be. The capital of this beautiful Caribbean state, Guatemala City has a high crime rate. Many times the crimes committed are shootings and drug trafficking, but the crimes can be more than that. Most crimes are encouraged by the cartels that the government cannot control. (Guatemala Facts 1)

Guatemala is a particularly large country in South America. The country’s terrain is dominated by mountains with narrow coastal plains, limestone plateaus, and volcanoes and jungles. The current population of Guatemala is 17,033,253 as of November 2017, according to the latest United Nations estimates (Guatemala Population (LIVE), 2017). The capital of the country is Guatemala City. For the past years, the politicians have been extremely corrupt. In 2016, Jimmy Morales had won the Guatemalan election to become the new president. His campaign slogan was “neither corrupt not a thief”. Because the people of Guatemala were beyond ready for a change in leadership, he won by a landslide. At the start of his term, people loved him and he seemed to be a great guy. He was a former comedian and not a politician so the people loved him. Unfortunately,

During my time in Guatemala, I believe that the social issues I came in the most contact with were hegemony and cultural imperialism, or in other words, the influence the United States has over Guatemala. No matter where I was, whether it be the streets of the small town of San Miguel or the larger, more developed city of Guatemala City, I could not help but notice how much of an impact the United States has. Throughout the course of a month we learned a lot about the root causes of poverty- America as a hegemon- through both readings and discussion. The footprint the U.S. has left in Guatemala was apparent not only while reading and learning about the history of Latin America, but while visiting the country itself. In addition, we had the

The country of Guatemala, located in Central America, is a developing country. Guatemala does not have a stable government as they have had a long history of dictatorships and had some representative governments throughout its history. Plus, the economy is very backward and not advanced. Guatemala’s location causes it to have many different types of terrains in the small country. It consists of beautiful highlands, fertile coastal lowlands and a central plateau. In spite of these beautiful lands, within the country, the government and economy are making a struggle to improve.

“Guatemala's 2015 population of 16.3 million makes it the most populous nation of Central America” (Population). Out if this number about 30,000 of them have left Guatemala as migrants (countrymeter). These migrants are leaving left and right fleeing to the United States from bad lifestyles causing an immigration crisis. They are fleeing from dangerous living conditions heading toward what they believe to be a better place. One mother came to America to get away from an abusive husband. She was emotionally and physacally abused and her husband even hired two men to kill her. She decined she had to leave when he began to threat thier daughter says her would rape her is she and the children didn”t leave (Guinan). Another

The Central American counties of the Northern Triangle: Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are considered the most dangerous countries in the world that are not at war. The region is very unstable due to weak governments and gangs. The gangs in these countries rule the streets taking innocent lives, sex trafficking and rapimg women and children, while the government does little to stop them. The violence started at different times in these countries. In Honduras during the 1980s the right- winged rebel group, the Contras housed themselves in the country. El Salvador’s violence dates back to 1979 with the Civil war. This war was between the government’s military and the leftiest