How Did Mayan Government Affect The Maya

At the end of the 19th century Guatemala came under the rule of a dictator who put his country on the economic map by encouraging landowners to buy and run coffee plantations. Within 30 years Americans were the major investors. A powerful army and police force were set up to protect the wealthy landowners and their flourishing businesses. The Mayan Indians, with the status of peasants and laborers, saw nothing of the wealth being generated under the various dictators.
In 1944 the dictator ruling was overthrown by another. He implemented a new government that introduced reforms that put interests of the native people first. The new land reform that would allow for land to be put under state ownership became a threat to American investors.
They would gather the Mayans by informing them of a celebration or a market day and slaughter them on the spot. For those that were able to escape, they would become hunted refugees. Mayans were brutally murdered, others were forced to watch, and sometimes to take part in killing their own people. Buildings were vandalized and demolished, crops were destroyed, livestock was slaughtered, water was fouled, and sacred places and cultural symbols were violated. Children were often beaten against walls, tortured and raped or thrown alive into pits where the bodies of adults would be later thrown. Many often had their limbs amputated, or were left to die slowly. Others were doused in gasoline and set on fire, or disemboweled while still alive. Some were shot repeatedly, or tortured and enclosed alone to die. The wombs of pregnant women were cut open, and many were routinely raped while being tortured. Death squads carried out planned executions and forced “disappearances”. Over 200,000 Mayans dies in this
Peace talks were set up by the UN in 1991, but made little progress. Over years of trying to set up an agreement and failures, a peace agreement was finally signed in 1996. On May 11, 2013 former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt was convicted of genocide by a court in his country for the part he played in massacres and other crimes committed against Mayans while he ruled in 1982 and 1983. He was convicted of ordering the death of Mayan people and sentenced to 80 years in prison.

Works Cited
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