GENOCIDE :
" [...] any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."
(As defined in UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948)in Article 2. Full text available here.)
WHy Does the violence against the indigenous population of Guatemala classify as genocide .
Having noticed that a majority of the victims is of Maya ethnicity isn't enough to define human rights crime as genocide. However extensive analysis has been done to testify how State violence has been carried out in such a way that is classifies as genocide, according to its legal definition.
According to a report by CEH “many massacres and other human rights violations committed against these groups obeyed a higher, strategically planned policy, manifested in actions which had a logical and coherent sequence.”
The fact that violence wasn't "limited" to homicide, but involved a series of operations aimed at inflicting sufferance, both physical and psychological, can be considered a cue of the fact that its aims were beyond those of "national security".
The following presentations has been made to illustrate some of the most significant findings contained in CEH's report Memoria del Silencio.(Report available in Spanish here).
Click on the different boxes to deepen some aspects of the genocide.
According to a report by CEH “many massacres and other human rights violations committed against these groups obeyed a higher, strategically planned policy, manifested in actions which had a logical and coherent sequence.”
The fact that violence wasn't "limited" to homicide, but involved a series of operations aimed at inflicting sufferance, both physical and psychological, can be considered a cue of the fact that its aims were beyond those of "national security".
The following presentations has been made to illustrate some of the most significant findings contained in CEH's report Memoria del Silencio.(Report available in Spanish here).
Click on the different boxes to deepen some aspects of the genocide.