The UC Santa Barbara Undergraduate Journal of History

This paper examines the Guatemalan genocide of the early 1980s through the lived experiences of Maya communities targeted by Efraín Ríos Montt and previous leaders. Drawing on survivor testimonies from the USC Shoah Foundation and human rights reports, this paper illustrates how state violence served as both a counterinsurgency tactic and a racialized project. By emphasizing Mayan voices, many of whom witnessed the destruction of villages, the disappearance of relatives, and the systematic use of terror, this paper highlights the human dimensions of a conflict too often reduced to Cold War narratives. The evidence reveals a consistent pattern of the Guatemalan state casting Maya peoples as internal enemies, enabling scorched-earth campaigns, forced displacement, and widespread massacres under the guise of national security. Survivor accounts complicate official explanations and demonstrate that the violence overwhelmingly targeted civilians, regardless of political affiliation. Through a microhistorical approach grounded in personal testimony, this paper argues that the genocide cannot be understood solely as a response to insurgency. Instead, it reflects the convergence of racial ideology, military doctrine, and long-standing structures of exclusion that shaped Guatemala’s national identity. In tracing these forces, this paper illustrates the enduring legacies of the genocide and the ongoing struggles for justice and historical memory.