After the American Civil War, General William Sherman stated, “War is hell!” All war, any war, takes a deadly toll on the two or more countries involved.  A civil war, however, is a special kind of hell, for those who die are all citizens or residents of the same country.  Wars, civil or otherwise, are usually fought over similar issues: racism, land, money, power, or fear.  Oftentimes, conflicts occur over a combination of these issues.  One such confrontation was the thirty-six-year civil war waged from 1960 to 1996 in the small Central American country of Guatemala.  The many parties involved in the war would state different reasons for it.  A careful scrutiny of the issue, however, reveals that the causes of the Guatemalan Civil War were racism towards and oppression of the native Mayan citizens, disputes regarding the use and ownership of land, and a desire for economic and political power.

            Mayans have been oppressed and systematically eradicated since Spain conquered Guatemala in 1520 (“Guatemala: A Brief History”). Although cruelty by the Spaniards ceased with Guatemala’s liberation in 1821, new groups arose to continue the oppression. Sadly, these groups were composed of Ladinos, who were part Mayan themselves.  The first group of Ladinos who tormented the Mayans was those in the military.  Being part European, Spanish speaking, and trained by the United States, they felt they were superior to the Mayans (Handy 191).  The Ladino military tried to force the Mayans to assimilate into the current culture and forgo the traditions of their ancestors.  They also forced them off of the land that Mayans attempted to farm.  Being simple, illiterate people who did not speak Spanish, the Mayans were unaware the land they cultivated to provide for their families now belonged to others (Pando).  Plot by plot they were forced to leave their farms by the Guatemalan army.  When they resisted, they were tortured and killed (Handy 204).  As the land available to them became almost impossible to find, desperation and starvation drove them to local plantations where they sought work.  Here, they experienced further oppression by plantation owners, many of whom were Ladinos.  The plantation owners thought the Mayans were lazy and dirty; the only use they had for the Mayans was as cheap labor (Madden, Pando).  The Mayans worked under terrible circumstances and if they did not work they were not paid.  Since they earned so little, they could not afford to take time off for illness (Painter).  The Ladino military and plantation owners felt justified in their treatment of the Mayans.  In their opinion, when the Mayans resisted leaving their land, they were defying orders given by the military-regime.  This opened them up to whatever punishment the Guatemalan army decided upon (Ruhl 57).  In addition, when the Mayans grew tired of their working conditions and demanded fair wages and a healthier environment, the plantation owners considered them to be insolent, ungrateful, and unworthy of such considerations and denied their requests (Madden).  The tension created from these situations elevated to the point where a conflict was inevitable (“Guatemala: A Brief History”).  Sadly, the Ladinos never appreciated or understood the fact that all the Mayans ever wanted was a small, harvestable piece of land to provide for their families and the ability to live out their lives without fear of racism (Madden).

            Harvestable land was another major cause of the Civil War.  Guatemala is a country with large plantations of coffee, sugar cane, and bananas.  In the years leading up to the war, however, the available land for these plantations was being quickly monopolized by foreign businesses. Guatemala’s pro-American President, General Jorge Ubico, welcomed purchases and cultivation of the land by American-owned businesses such as Pan American Airlines, W. R. Grace and Company, and the United Fruit Company (Cullather 10).  Between the plantation owners and the foreign industries, less and less land was available for the native, Mayan citizens of Guatemala.  As tension between the various factions in Guatemala increased, a popular revolt occurred resulting in the removal of Ubico as President (Cullather 10 – 11).  The two leaders who followed Ubico each brought social reform to Guatemala, but one leader in particular initiated a land reform that increased the tension level in Guatemala dramatically.  President Jacobo Arbenz initiated the Agrarian Reform Law of 1952, which called for the redistribution of uncultivated land from plantation owners and to the indigent farmers (Handy 86 – 91). The government compensated landowners according to how much they claimed their land was worth on their taxes (“Guatemala Basics”).  Plantation owners were outraged at how the government came in, took their land from them, and compensated them poorly.  One landowner hit the worse was the United Fruit Company who lost 440,000 acres of land (“Guatemala Basics”).  In contrast, the impoverished Mayans were far from angry about the land reform.  In fact, they were elated at the long-awaited opportunity to possess their own property (Handy 93 – 96).  Sadly, their joy was short-lived.  Stating that the forced removal of their land reeked of communism, the United Fruit Company informed their allies in the United States about the land redistribution (Cullather 16).  Those allies had the direct ear of the President of the United States, former General Dwight D. Eisenhower.  Partly out of the genuine fear of communism and partly to restore American-friendly leadership to Guatemala, the United States took action to address the land dispute in Guatemala and, thereby, brought the Central American country one step closer to civil war (Cullather 16 – 17).

            During the period following the Agrarian Reform Law, the United Fruit Company and the United States of American lost a considerable amount of economic and political power in Guatemala.  President Arbenz’ reform showed that his priority was the welfare of his people and not the protection of American interests in Guatemala.   The removal of United Fruit’s uncultivated land was a true threat to the security of America’s Guatemalan interests in that it severely limited the future growth and development of the Company, and thereby, severely affected their financial prospects (Cullather 177).  The United States also felt that the politics behind the land redistribution was a genuine threat to the American principle of democracy and had to be stopped (Cullather 177).  As it became increasingly obvious that Arbenz was uncontrollable, the United States determined to help restore leadership to Guatemala that would be pro-American and anti-communism. In a combined effort between the United States and Guatemalan General Carlos Enrique Castillo Armas, a brief battle occurred which overthrew the Presidency of Arbenz and replaced it with the American-friendly Armas, who had a new vision for Guatemala. President Armas returned Guatemala to military rule and reinstituted the repressive treatment of the Mayans (“A ‘killing field’”).  With Arbenz no longer in power, the Agrarian Reform Law was nullified, the repossessed land was returned to the plantation owners, including the American Fruit Company, and, the Mayans were once again homeless and persecuted to an even greater extent than before (“A ‘killing field’”).  The consequences of this latest power struggle brought the people of Guatemala to their breaking point.  .

            Although war truly is hellish, there are some things worth fighting for.  To be oppressed, stripped of one’s heritage, and made to work as de facto slaves would make the average prudent human being rebel against their oppressors and rise up and fight for their natural born rights; this is exactly what the people of Guatemala began to do.  Mayans began to mobilize and create guerilla forces to fight for their autonomy (Pando).  Unknowingly, the persecuted portion of Guatemala’s population took up the cry of American patriot Patrick Henry: “Give me liberty or give me death.” And die they did! More than 200,000 citizens lost their lives due to oppression, desires for land, and hunger for power in this uncivilized Guatemalan Civil War (“Guatemala Mayans”).