36.5: Conflict Across Latin America

36.5.1: Cuba and the Castros

Learning Objective

Discuss the rise of the Castros

Key Points

• Fidel Alejandro
  Castro Ruz was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who governed the Republic
  of Cuba as Prime Minister from 1959 to 1976 and then as President from 1976 to
  2008. Under his administration, Cuba became a one-party socialist state, industry
  and business were nationalized, and state socialist reforms were implemented
  throughout society.

• In the decades
  following its independence from Spain in 1902, Cuba experienced a period of
  significant instability, enduring a number of revolts, coups, and periods of U.S. military intervention. 

• Fulgencio
  Batista, a former soldier who served as the elected president of Cuba from
  1940 to 1944, became president for the second time in March 1952 after seizing
  power in a military coup. Although Batista was supported by the Communist
  Party of Cuba during his first term as President, he became strongly
  anti-communist during his second term, gaining him political and military support
  from the United States.
• Fidel Castro
  petitioned for the overthrow of Batista, whom he accused of corruption and
  tyranny; however, Castro’s constitutional arguments were rejected by the Cuban
  courts. After deciding that the Cuban regime could not be replaced via legal
  avenues, Castro resolved to launch an armed revolution.
• Castro’s Movement
  attacked a number of military installations, after which he and his brother Raul
  were imprisoned. Upon release, he took his Movement to Mexico to regroup.
• At the end of
  1956, the Movement returned to Cuba, using the Sierra Maestra mountain range as its base.
  Fighting between the Movement and the Batista regime would continue off and on through
  the beginning of 1959.

• The US imposed
  an economic embargo on the Cuban government and recalled its ambassador during
  the conflict, further weakening the Batista government’s mandate. Batista’s
  support among Cubans began to fade, with former supporters either joining the
  revolutionaries or distancing themselves from the regime.

• On August 21,
  1958, Castro’s forces began an offensive in the Oriente province, proceeding
  west from the Sierra Maestra mountain range toward Santa Clara. On January 2, 1959, the
  military stopped resisting their progress and Castro took the city, ending the
  revolution in a victory for his Movement.
• The Cuban
  Revolution was a crucial turning point in U.S.-Cuban relations, with the American
  establishment fearing further Communist insurgencies would spread throughout
  Latin America as they had in Southeast Asia.
• As the Americans took a harder line against the Cuban revolutionary
  government, the Soviet Union became Cuba’s main ally and ideological influence.

Key Terms

embargo

An embargo (derived from the Spanish word embargo) is the partial or complete
prohibition of commerce and trade with a particular country or group of
countries. Embargoes are considered a strong diplomatic measure to elicit
a specific result from the country on which it is imposed. Embargoes are
similar to economic sanctions and are generally considered legal barriers to
trade as opposed to blockades, which are acts of war.

escopeteros

Scouts and pickets from the Sierra Maestra and
other mountain ranges during the Cuban Revolution. They were responsible for
semi-continuously holding terrain against smaller sized Batista patrols, as
well as providing first alerts, communications, protected supply routes,
essential intelligence, and captured weapons to the mainline Castro forces in
the high mountains.

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz
was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who governed the Republic of Cuba as
Prime Minister from 1959 to 1976 and then as President from 1976 to 2008.
Politically a Marxist-Leninist and Cuban nationalist, he also served as the
First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from 1961 until 2011. Under his
administration, Cuba became a one-party socialist state, industry and business
were nationalized, and state socialist reforms were implemented throughout
society.

Background and Causes of the
Cuban Revolution

In the decades following its
independence from Spain in 1902, Cuba experienced a period of significant instability,
enduring a number of revolts, coups, and periods of U.S. military intervention.
Fulgencio Batista, a former soldier who served as the elected president of
Cuba from 1940 to 1944, became president for the second time in March 1952 after
seizing power in a military coup and canceling the planned 1952 elections.
Although Batista was relatively progressive during his first term, he
proved far more dictatorial and indifferent to popular concerns in the 1950s.
While Cuba remained plagued by high unemployment and limited water
infrastructure, Batista antagonized the population by forming lucrative links to
organized crime and allowing American companies to dominate the Cuban economy. Throughout
the 1950s, Havana became the setting for the American mafia, corrupt law
enforcement officials, and their political elected cronies to profit off
gambling, prostitution, and the drug trade. By the
end of the 1950s, Havana had about 270 brothels. Additionally, marijuana and cocaine
were as plentiful as and sometimes similarly priced to alcohol.

Although Batista was supported by the Communist Party of Cuba during his first term as President, he
became strongly anti-communist during his second term, gaining him political
and military support from the United States. Batista also developed a powerful
security infrastructure to silence political opponents during his second
term. In the months following the March 1952 coup, Fidel Castro, then a young
lawyer and activist, petitioned for the overthrow of Batista, whom he accused
of corruption and tyranny; however, Castro’s constitutional arguments were
rejected by the Cuban courts. After deciding that the Cuban regime could not be
replaced via legal avenues, Castro resolved to launch an armed revolution. To
this end, he and his brother Raul founded a paramilitary organization known as
“The Movement,” stockpiling weapons and recruiting around 1,200 followers from
Havana’s disgruntled working class by the end of 1952.

The Revolution

Fidel and Raul gathered
Movement fighters and attacked a number of military installations, including
the Moncada Barracks in Santiago. Many rebels were captured and executed by the
military, and Fidel and Raul were imprisoned following a highly political trial
in which Fidel defended himself for nearly four hours, ending with the infamous
words, “Condemn me, it does not matter. History will absolve me.” The brothers
were sentenced to more than 10 years each, but released in 1955 as a result of broad
political pressure placed upon the Batista government. Soon after
their release, the brothers traveled to Mexico with a group of exiles to
prepare for Batista’s overthrow. In June 1955, Fidel met with the Argentine
revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara, who joined his cause. The revolutionaries
named themselves the 26th of July Movement in reference to the
attack on the Moncada Barracks that took place on that date in 1953.

Che and Fidel

Revolutionary leaders Che Guevara (left) and Fidel Castro (right) in 1961.

On November 25, 1956, the 26th
of July Movement departed Veracruz, Mexico for Cuba, arriving a week later.
They took to the Sierra Maestra mountains, a range in southeastern Cuba, and
were attacked three days after beginning their trek by Batista’s army. No more
than 20 of the original 82 participants survived. On March 13, 1957, a separate
group of revolutionaries, the anticommunist Student Revolutionary Directorate
(RD), stormed the Presidential Palace in Havana, attempting to assassinate
Batista and decapitate the government. The attack failed and the RD’s leader
was killed during a shootout.

After this, the United States imposed an economic embargo on the Cuban government and recalled its
ambassador, further weakening the Batista government’s mandate. As a result,
Batista’s support among Cubans began to fade, with former supporters either
joining the revolutionaries or distancing themselves from the regime.
Nonetheless, the mafia and U.S. businessmen maintained their support for the
regime. Batista’s government resorted to brutal methods to keep Cuba’s cities
under control. 

Meanwhile, Castro’s forces
in the Sierra Maestra mountains staged successful attacks on small garrisons of
Batista’s troops. Additionally, poorly armed irregular forces not associated
with Castro known as escopeteros
harassed Batista’s forces in the foothills and plains of Oriente Province.
Eventually the escopeteros provided
direct military support to Castro’s main forces by protecting supply lines and
sharing intelligence. Over time, the Sierra Maestra mountains came under
Castro’s complete control. In addition to armed resistance, the rebels used
propaganda to their advantage. A pirate radio station called Radio Rebelde
(“Rebel Radio”) was set up in February 1958, allowing Castro and his forces to
broadcast their message nationwide within enemy territory. 

Although Castro’s forces
remained fairly small, they were continuously successful in forcing
Batista’s army to retreat whenever the two forces met. Finally, Batista
responded to Castro’s successes with an attack on the mountains called
Operation Verano, or to the rebels, la Ofensiva. The operation was close for
some time, but the tide turned in Batista’s favor on July 29, 1958, when his
troops almost completely destroyed Castro’s 300-man army at the Battle of Las
Mercedes. Castro asked for and was granted a cease-fire on August 1. Within a
week, Castro’s forces escaped back into the mountains.

Raúl Castro and Che Guevara

Raúl Castro (left) with his arm around his second-in-command, Ernesto “Che” Guevara, in their Sierra de Cristal mountain stronghold in Oriente Province, Cuba, in 1958.

On August 21, 1958, Castro’s
forces began their own offensive in the Oriente province, proceeding west
toward Santa Clara. As a column of rebels led by Guevara entered territory where the
RD had been fighting Batista’s forces, the two groups, seeing past initial
friction, joined together to rout the army. By December 31, 1958, both groups
of rebels met with the 26th of July Movement troops headed by Camilo
Cienfuegos in Santa Clara, and the city fell to their combined forces. News of
his defeat in Santa Clara caused Batista to panic, and he fled to the Dominican
Republic hours later. When Castro learned of Batista’s flight from Cuba, he
began negotiations to take over Santiago de Cuba. On January 2, 1959, the
military commander in the city ordered troops not to fight, and Castro’s forces
took the city. Castro then arrived in Havana on January 8 after a long victory
march.

International Reactions and
Foreign Policy

The Cuban Revolution was a
crucial turning point in U.S.-Cuban relations. Although John F. Kennedy expressed
sympathy for the initial goals of Castro’s rebel movement and the U.S. government initially intended to recognize the new regime, the fear that
further Communist insurgencies would spread throughout Latin America as they
had in Southeast Asia caused a reverse in tactics. After the revolutionary
government nationalized all U.S. property in Cuba in August 1960, the Eisenhower
administration froze all Cuban assets on American soil, severed diplomatic
ties, and tightened its embargo of Cuba. In 1961, the U.S. government backed an
armed counter-revolutionary assault on the Bay of Pigs with the aim of ousting
Castro, but the counter-revolutionaries were swiftly defeated by the Cuban
military. Castro, meanwhile, resented the Americans for providing aid to
the Batista government during the revolution and attempting to subvert
the Cuban revolutionary government militarily and economically in subsequent
years.

Following the American embargo, the Soviet Union became Cuba’s main ally
and ideological influence. The two Communist countries quickly developed close
military and intelligence ties, culminating in the stationing of Soviet nuclear
weapons in Cuba in 1962, an act that triggered the Cuban Missile Crisis. Influenced
by the expansion of the Soviet Union into Europe after the 1917 Russian
Revolution, Castro sought to export his revolution to other countries in the Caribbean
and beyond, sending weapons to Algerian rebels as early as 1960. In the
following decades, Cuba became heavily involved in supporting Communist
insurgencies and independence movements in many developing countries, sending
military aid to insurgents in Ghana, Nicaragua, and Yemen, among others. Cuba continued
to maintain close links to the Soviets until the Soviet Union’s collapse in
1991. The end of Soviet economic aid led to an economic crisis and famine
throughout Cuba known as the Special Period.

36.5.2: The Guatemalan Civil War

Learning Objective

Explain the controversy surrounding the
Guatemalan Civil War

Key Points

• The Guatemalan
  Civil War took place from 1960 to 1996 between the government of
  Guatemala and various leftist rebel groups supported chiefly by ethnic Maya
  indigenous people and Ladino peasants, who together made up the rural poor.
• Guatemalan
  society was composed of three sharply defined classes throughout this period:
  Criollos, Ladinos, and indigenous peoples.
• Democratic
  elections during the Guatemalan Revolution in 1944 and 1951 brought popular
  leftist governments to power, but a U.S.-backed coup in 1954 installed the
  military regime of Carlos Castillo Armas, who was followed by a series of
  conservative military dictators. 
• On November 13,
  1960, a group of left-wing officers from the national military academy led a
  failed revolt against the autocratic government of General Ydigoras Fuentes. The
  surviving officers fled into the hills of eastern Guatemala and established an
  insurgent movement known as the MR-13 (Movimiento Revolucionario 13 Noviembre).
• As well as
  fighting between government forces and rebel groups, the conflict included a
  large -scale, coordinated campaign of one-sided violence by the Guatemalan state
  against the civilian population.
• In 1970, Colonel
  Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio became the first of a series of military dictators
  representing the Institutional Democratic Party or PID that would rule the
  country for the next 12 years.
• Starting in
  1983, de facto president Mejía Victores allowed a gradual return to democracy
  in Guatemala.
• Under de Leon,
  the peace process, now brokered by the United Nations, took on new life. The
  government and the URNG signed agreements on human rights (March 1994),
  resettlement of displaced persons (June 1994), historical clarification (June
  1994), and indigenous rights (March 1995).
• Under the Arzú administration, peace negotiations were concluded, and
  the government and URNG, which became a legal party, signed peace accords
  ending the 36-year internal conflict in December 1996.

Key Terms

disappeared

A person who is secretly abducted or imprisoned
by a state or political organization, or by a third party with the
authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organization.
Following abduction, there is a refusal to acknowledge the person’s fate or
whereabouts, essentially placing the victim outside the protection of the law.

genocide

The intentional act to destroy a people (usually
defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group) in whole or in
part.

The Guatemalan Civil War took
place from 1960 to 1996. It was fought between the government of Guatemala and
various leftist rebel groups supported chiefly by ethnic Maya indigenous people
and Ladino peasants, who together make up the rural poor. The government forces
of Guatemala have been condemned for committing genocide against the Maya
population of Guatemala during the civil war and for widespread human rights
violations against civilians.

Background

After the 1871 revolution,
the Liberal government of Justo Rufino Barrios escalated coffee production in
Guatemala, which required much land and many workers. To support these needs, Barrios established the Settler Rule Book, which forced the
native population work for low wages for Criollo and German settler
landowners. Barrios also confiscated the native population’s land, which had
been protected during Spanish rule and the Conservative government of Rafael
Carrera. Barrios redistributed the confiscated land to his Liberal friends, who
in turn became important landowners.

Societal Structure

Guatemalan society was
composed of three sharply defined classes throughout this period. Criollos were
a minority group who descended from both the ancient families of the Spaniards
that conquered Central America and the Indians who had been conquered by
the Spaniards. As of the 1920s, the Criollos led the country both politically
and intellectually by virtue of their education, which, although poor by
European standards of the time, remained superior to that of the
rest of the people in the country. That was partially because Criollo families controlled
or owned most of the cultivated areas of Guatemala and were the only group
allowed in either of the main political parties. The Guatemalan middle class,
Ladinos, was composed of people with heritage from the native and black populations
as well as Criollos. Ladinos held almost no political power in the 1920s and
made up the bulk of artisans, storekeepers, tradesmen, and minor officials. In
the eastern part of the country, many Ladinos were agricultural laborers.

The majority of the
Guatemalan population was composed of indigenous peoples referred to as
Indians. Many had no formal education and served as
soldiers or agricultural workers. Within the indigenous population were further
categories: “Mozos colonos” settled on plantations and were given a
small piece of land to cultivate on their own in return for their work on the
plantation itself, while “mozos jornaleros” were day-laborers who were contracted to
work for certain periods of time and paid a daily wage in return. 

Both of these categories typically worked to pay off debts to higher
class individuals, who in turn encouraged the assumption of further debt on the
part of the indigenous person. Often, due to the large amount of debt and small
amount of pay, a mozo essentially became an indentured servant to the owner of
their debt. If a mozo refused to work or attempted to run away, the owner of
their debt could have them pursued and even imprisoned. Nonetheless, some
indigenous people remained independent tillers, who lived
in remote provinces and survived by growing a subsistence crop of maize, beans,
or wheat. Occasionally a small margin of their crop would be available for sale
in town markets, but the travel to get to these markets could be arduous.

Initial Phases of the Civil
War

Democratic elections during
the Guatemalan Revolution in 1944 and 1951 brought popular leftist
governments to power, but a United States backed coup d’état in 1954 installed
the military regime of Carlos Castillo Armas, followed by a series of
conservative military dictators. On November 13, 1960, a group of left-wing
junior military officers from the national military academy led a failed revolt
against the autocratic government of General Ydigoras Fuentes, who usurped
power in 1958 following the assassination of incumbent Armas. The surviving
officers fled into the hills of eastern Guatemala and later established
communication with the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. By 1962, those
surviving officers had established an insurgent movement known as the MR-13
(Movimiento Revolucionario 13 Noviembre), named after the date of the initial officers’
revolt. Through the early phase of the conflict, the MR-13 was a principal
component of the insurgent movement in Guatemala.

The MR-13 later initiated
contact with the outlawed PGT (Guatemalan Labour Party), composed and led by
middle-class intellectuals and students, and a student organization called the
Movimiento 12 de Abril (April 12 Movement). These groups merged into an
coalition guerrilla organization called the Rebel Armed Forces (FAR) in December
1962. Also affiliated with the FAR was the FGEI (Edgar Ibarra Guerrilla Front).
The MR-13, PGT, and FGEI each operated in different parts of the country as
three separate “frentes” (fronts). The MR-13 established itself in
the mostly Ladino departments of Izabal and Zacapa. The FGEI established itself
in Sierra de las Minas, and the PGT operated as an urban guerrilla front. Each
of these three “frentes” (comprising no more than 500 combatants)
was led by former members of the 1960 army revolt who has been
trained in counterinsurgency warfare by the United States.

As well as fighting between
government forces and rebel groups, the conflict included a large-scale,
coordinated campaign of one-sided violence by the Guatemalan state against the
civilian population from the mid-1960s onward. The military intelligence
services (G2 or S2) and an affiliated intelligence organization known as La
Regional or Archivo, headquartered in an annex of the presidential palace, were
responsible for coordinating killings and “disappearances” of
opponents of the state, suspected insurgents, and those deemed by the
intelligence services to be collaborators. The Guatemalan state was the first
in Latin America to engage in widespread use of forced disappearances against
its opposition, with the number of disappeared estimated at between 40,000 and
50,000 from 1966 until the end of the war. In rural areas where the insurgency
maintained its strongholds, the repression amounted to wholesale slaughter of
the peasantry and massacres of entire villages, starting in Izabal and Zacapa (1966–68)
and later in the predominantly Mayan western highlands. In the
early 1980s, the killings reached the scale of
genocide.

Exhumation in the Ixil triangle in Guatemala

Queqchí people carrying their loved one’s remains after an exhumation in Cambayal in Alta Verapaz department, Guatemala in February 2012. Since 1997, the Centre of Forensic Anthropology and Applied Sciences (CAFCA) has been helping to heal the deep wounds caused by Guatemala’s internal conflict.

Domination by Military
Rulers

In 1970, Colonel Carlos
Manuel Arana Osorio became the first of a series of military dictators
representing the Institutional Democratic Party, or PID. The PID dominated
Guatemalan politics for 12 years via electoral fraud favoring two of Arana’s
proteges: General Kjell Eugenio Laugerud Garcia in 1974 and General Romeo Lucas
Garcia in 1978. Also during the 1970s, continuing social discontent gave rise
to an insurgency among large populations of indigenous people and peasants, who
traditionally bore the brunt of unequal land tenure.The PID lost its grip on Guatemalan
politics when General Efraín Ríos Montt, together with a group of junior army
officers, seized power in a military coup on March 23, 1982. During the 1980s,
the Guatemalan military assumed almost absolute government power for five
years. It successfully infiltrated and eliminated enemies in every
socio-political institution of the nation, including the political, social, and
intellectual classes. In the final stage of the civil war, the military
developed a parallel, semi-visible, low profile, but high-effect, control of
Guatemala’s national life.

Mejia Victores Regime and
Democratic Transition

Ríos Montt was deposed on
August 8, 1983, by his own Minister of Defense, General Óscar Humberto Mejía
Victores. Mejía Victores became de facto president and justified the coup by characterizing
Montt’s regime as corrupt and its officials as abusing their positions of power
within the government. Montt remained in politics, founding the Guatemalan
Republican Front party in 1989. He was elected President of Congress in 1995
and 2000. By the time Mejia Victores assumed power, the counterinsurgency under
Lucas Garcia and Montt had largely succeeded in its objective of detaching the
insurgency from its civilian support base. Additionally, G2 had infiltrated most political institutions, eradicating opponents in the
government through terror and selective assassinations. The counterinsurgency
program had militarized Guatemalan society, creating a fearful atmosphere that suppressed most public agitation and insurgency. The military had
consolidated its power in virtually all sectors of society.

Due to international
pressure as well as pressure from other Latin American nations, Mejía Victores
allowed a gradual return to democracy in Guatemala. On July 1, 1984, an election
was held for representatives to a Constituent Assembly to draft a democratic
constitution. On May 30, 1985, the Constituent Assembly finished drafting a new
constitution, which took effect immediately. General elections were scheduled
and civilian candidate Vinicio Cerezo was elected as president. The gradual
revival of democracy did not end the disappearances and death squad killings,
however, as extrajudicial state violence had become an integral part of the
political culture.

The Democratic Era

Cerezo Administration

Vinicio Cerezo, a civilian
politician and the presidential candidate of the Guatemalan Christian
Democracy, won the first election held under the new constitution with almost
70% of the vote. Upon its inauguration in January 1986, President Cerezo’s
civilian government announced that its top priorities would be to end the
political violence and establish rule of law. Reforms included new laws of
habeas corpus and amparo
(court-ordered protection), the creation of a legislative human rights
committee, and the establishment in 1987 of the Office of Human Rights
Ombudsman. The Supreme Court also embarked on a series of reforms to fight
corruption and improve legal system efficiency.

With Cerezo’s election, the
military moved away from governing and returned to the more traditional role of
providing internal security, specifically by fighting armed insurgents. The
first two years of Cerezo’s administration were characterized by a stable
economy and a marked decrease in political violence. Dissatisfied military
personnel made coup attempts in May 1988 and May 1989, but military
leadership supported the constitutional order. The government was heavily
criticized for its unwillingness to investigate or prosecute cases of human
rights violations, however.

Presidential and
congressional elections were held on November 11, 1990. After the second-round
ballot, Jorge Antonio Serrano Elías was inaugurated on January 14, 1991, completing the first transition from one democratically elected civilian
government to another. Because his Movement of Solidarity Action (MAS) Party
gained only 18 of 116 seats in Congress, Serrano entered into a tenuous
alliance with the Christian Democrats and the National Union of the Center
(UCN).

Serrano Administration

The Serrano administration’s
record was mixed. It had some success in consolidating civilian control over
the army, replacing a number of senior officers and persuading the military to
participate in peace talks with the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity, or
URNG, an umbrella organization representing leftist beliefs among the
Guatemalan people, particularly the poor. He took the politically unpopular
step of recognizing the sovereignty of Belize, which until then was officially though fruitlessly claimed by Guatemala. The Serrano government
reversed the economic slump it inherited, reducing inflation and creating real growth. Then on May 25, 1993, Serrano illegally dissolved Congress and
the Supreme Court and attempted to restrict civil freedoms, allegedly in
order to fight corruption. The auto-coup failed due to the unified efforts of
most elements of Guatemalan society to protest Serrano’s actions, international
pressure, and the army’s enforcement of the decisions of the Court of
Constitutionality, which ruled against the attempted takeover. 

Subsequently, Serrano fled
the country and pursuant to the provisions of the 1985 constitution, the
Guatemalan Congress elected the Human Rights Ombudsman, Alfonso Guillermo de
León Marroquín, to complete Serrano’s presidential term as of June 5, 1993. De
Leon was not a member of any political party and lacked a political base. Nonetheless,
he enjoyed strong popular support. During his time in office, he launched an
ambitious anti-corruption campaign within Congress and the Supreme Court,
demanding the resignations of all members of the two bodies.

Renewed Peace Process (1994
to 1996)

Under de Leon, the peace
process, now brokered by the United Nations, took on new life. The government
and the URNG signed agreements on human rights (March 1994), resettlement of
displaced persons (June 1994), historical clarification (June 1994), and
indigenous rights (March 1995). They also made significant progress on a socioeconomic
and agrarian agreement.

National elections for
president, Congress, and municipal offices were held in November 1995. With
almost 20 parties competing in the first round, the presidential election came
down to a January 7, 1996, run-off in which National Advancement Party (PAN)
candidate Álvaro Arzú Irigoyen defeated Alfonso Portillo Cabrera of the Guatemalan
Republican Front (FRG) by just over two percent of the vote. Arzú won because
of his strength in Guatemala City, where he previously served as mayor, and
in the surrounding urban area. Portillo won all of the rural departments except
Petén. Under the Arzú administration, peace negotiations were concluded, and
the government and URNG, which became a legal party, signed peace accords
ending the 36-year internal conflict in December 1996. The General Secretary of
the URNG, Comandante Rolando Morán, and President Álvaro Arzú jointly received
the UNESCO Peace Prize for their efforts to end the civil war and attain the
peace agreement. The United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1094 on
January 20, 1997, deploying military observers to Guatemala to monitor the
implementation of the peace agreements.

Legal Charges of Crimes
Against Humanity

In total, an estimated
200,000 civilians were killed or “disappeared” during the
conflict, most at the hands of the military, police, and intelligence services.
Victims of the repression included indigenous activists, suspected government
opponents, returning refugees, critical academics, students, left-leaning
politicians, trade unionists, religious workers, journalists, and street
children. The “Comisión para el Esclarecimiento Histórico” has
estimated that 93% of the violence committed during the conflict was carried
out by government forces and 3% by guerrillas. In 2009, Guatemalan courts
sentenced the first person to be convicted of the crime of ordering forced
disappearances, Felipe Cusanero. This was followed by the 2013 trial of former
president Montt for the killing and disappearances of more than 1,700 indigenous
Ixil Maya during his 1982-83 rule. The accusations of genocide derived from the
“Memoria del Silencio” report written by the UN-appointed Commission
for Historical Clarification, which held that genocide could have occurred in
Quiché between 1981 and 1983. 

The first former head of state to be tried for genocide by his own
country’s judicial system, Montt was found guilty the day following the
conclusion of his trial and sentenced to 80 years in prison. A few days
later, however, the sentence was reversed and the trial was rescheduled due to alleged judicial anomalies. The trial began again in 2015. The
court decided, due to his alleged senility, that a closed door trial would resume
in January 2016, and that if Montt were found guilty, a jail sentence
would be precluded given his health condition.

Ex-General Efrain Rios Montt testifying during his trial on March 19, 2013

Montt
declared himself innocent: “I am innocent. I never had the intention of destroying any national ethnic group. My role as head of State was specifically to bring the nation back on track, after it had gone astray.”

36.5.3: From the Somozas to the Sandinistas in Nicaragua

Learning Objective

Outline events in Nicaragua moving from the
Somozas to the Sandinistas

Key Points

• The longest dictatorship
  in Nicaragua’s history was the hereditary dictatorship of the Somoza family,
  who ruled for 43 years during the 20th century.
• The Somoza
  family was among a few families or groups of influential firms that reaped most
  of the benefits of the country’s growth from the 1950s to the 1970s.
• In 1961, Carlos
  Fonseca and two others founded the Sandinista National Liberation
  Front (FSLN).
• On December 27,
  1974, a group of nine FSLN guerrillas invaded a party at the home of a former
  Minister of Agriculture, killing him and three guards and taking
  several leading government officials and prominent businessmen hostage. Anastasio
  Somoza Debayle, in his memoirs, refers to this action as the beginning of a
  sharp escalation of Sandinista attacks and government reprisals.
• The country
  tipped into full-scale civil war with the 1978 murder of Pedro Chamorro, a
  Nicaraguan journalist and publisher who opposed violence against the
  regime.

• In May 1979,
  another general strike was called and the FSLN launched a major push to take
  control of the country. As Nicaragua’s government collapsed and the National
  Guard commanders escaped with Somoza, the rebels advanced on the capital
  victoriously.

• On July 19,
  1979, a new government was proclaimed under a provisional junta headed by
  33-year-old Daniel Ortega. Then, the Sandinistas were victorious in the
  national election of November 4, 1984, gathering 67% of the vote.
• American support
  for the Somoza family soured diplomatic relations with Nicaragua, and the FSLN
  government was committed to a Marxist ideology, with many leading Sandinista individuals
  continuing long-standing relationships with the Soviet Union and Cuba. With the
  election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, relations between the US and the Sandinista
  regime became an active front in the Cold War.
• The first
  challenge to the Sandanistas’ powerful new army came from the Contras, groups
  of Somoza’s National Guard that had fled to Honduras and were organized,
  trained, and funded by CIA elements.
• Mutual exhaustion, Sandinista fears of Contra unity and military
  success, and mediation by other regional governments led to a ceasefire between
  the Sandinistas and the Contras on March 23, 1988. Subsequent agreements were
  designed to reintegrate the Contras and their supporters into Nicaraguan
  society.

Key Terms

embargo

An embargo (derived from the Spanish word embargo) is the partial or complete
prohibition of commerce and trade with a particular country or group of
countries. Embargoes are considered a strong diplomatic measure to elicit
a specific result from the country on which it is imposed. Embargoes are
similar to economic sanctions and are generally considered legal barriers to trade
as opposed to blockades, which are acts of war.

Sandinista National Liberation
Front (FSLN)

Now a democratic socialist political party, but
previously a Nicaraguan resistance organization opposed to the hereditary Somoza
dictatorship.

Somoza Dynasty (1927-1979)

Over the course of its
history, Nicaragua has experienced several military dictatorships; the longest
was the hereditary dictatorship of the Somoza family, who ruled for 43 years
during the 20th century. The Somoza family came to power as part of
a U.S.-engineered pact in 1927 that stipulated the formation of the Guardia
Nacional (National Guard) to replace the marines who had long reigned in
Nicaragua. Anastasio Somoza slowly eliminated officers in the National Guard
who might have stood in his way, then deposed President Juan Bautista Sacasa to
become Nicaragua’s new president on January 1, 1937, in a rigged election. When
Anastasio was shot and mortally wounded by Liberal Nicaraguan poet Rigoberto
Lopez Perez on September 21, 1956, his eldest son, Luis Somoza Debayle, was
appointed president by Congress and officially took charge of the country. He
is remembered as moderate, but was only in power for a few years
before dying of a heart attack. His successor as president was Rene Schick
Gutierrez, widely considered a puppet of the Somoza family. 

Somoza and Trujillo (1952)

Dictator-General Anastasio Somoza (left) with Dominican President Rafael Trujillo in 1952.

The Somoza family was among
a few families or groups of influential firms that reaped most of the benefits
of the country’s growth from the 1950s to the 1970s. When Anastasio Somoza
Debayle was deposed by the Sandinistas in 1979, the family’s worth was
estimated between U.S. $500 million and $1.5 billion. In 1972 when an
earthquake destroyed nearly 90% of Managua, Anastasio Somoza Debayle siphoned
off relief money instead of helping to rebuild the city. Even the economic
elite were reluctant to support Somoza following his actions as he had acquired
monopolies in industries that were key to rebuilding the nation.

Nicaraguan Revolution
(1960s-1990)

In 1961, Carlos Fonseca
turned back to the historical figure of Augusto Cesar Sandino, the charismatic
leader of Nicaragua’s nationalist rebellion against the U.S. occupation of the
country, and along with two others, founded the Sandinista National Liberation
Front (FSLN). The December 1972 Managua earthquake was a major turning point in
the revival of the Sandinistas, stoking violent opposition to the government
during a time of heightened international attention. The Sandinistas even
received some support from Cuba and the Soviet Union during this period.

On December 27, 1974, a
group of nine FSLN guerrillas invaded a party at the home of a former Minister
of Agriculture, killing him and three guards in the process of taking several
leading government officials and prominent businessmen hostage. In return for
the hostages, they succeeded in getting the government to pay U.S. $2 million
ransom, the broadcast of an FSLN declaration on the radio and in the opposition
newspaper La Prensa, the release of
14 FSLN members from jail, and flights for the raiders and the released FSLN
members to Cuba. The incident humiliated the government and greatly enhanced
the prestige of the FSLN. Anastasio Somoza Debayle, in his memoirs, refers to
this action as the beginning of a sharp escalation in terms of Sandinista
attacks and government reprisals. Martial law was declared in 1975, and the
National Guard began to raze villages in the jungle suspected of supporting the
rebels. Human rights groups condemned the actions, but U.S. President Gerald Ford
refused to break the alliance with Somoza.

The country tipped into
full-scale civil war with the 1978 murder of Pedro Chamorro, a Nicaraguan
journalist and publisher who opposed violence against the regime. Fifty
thousand people turned out for his funeral. Many assumed that Somoza
ordered his assassination because there was evidence implicating Somoza’s
son and other members of the National Guard. A nationwide strike commenced in
protest, demanding an end to the dictatorship. At the same time, the
Sandinistas stepped up their rate of guerrilla activity. Several towns,
assisted by Sandinista guerrillas, expelled their National Guard units. Somoza
responded with increasing violence and repression. When León became the first
city in Nicaragua to fall to the Sandinistas, he responded with aerial
bombardment.

The U.S. media grew
increasingly unfavorable in its reporting on the situation in Nicaragua.
Realizing that the Somoza dictatorship was unsustainable, the Carter
administration attempted to force him to leave Nicaragua. Somoza refused and
sought to maintain his power through the National Guard. At that point, the U.S. ambassador sent a cable to the White House saying it would be
“ill-advised” to call off the bombing, because such an action would
help the Sandinistas gain power. When ABC reporter Bill Stewart was executed by
the National Guard and graphic film of the killing was broadcast on TV, the
American public became more hostile to Somoza. In the end, President Carter
refused Somoza further military aid, believing that the repressive nature of
the government led to popular support for the Sandinista uprising.

Beginning of the Sandinista
Period

In May 1979, another general
strike was called, and the FSLN launched a major push to take control of the
country. By mid-July, they had Somoza and the National Guard isolated in
Managua. As Nicaragua’s government collapsed and the National Guard commanders
escaped with Somoza, the rebels advanced on the capital victoriously. On July
19, 1979, a new government was proclaimed under a provisional junta headed by
33-year-old Daniel Ortega. The FSLN took over a nation plagued by malnutrition,
disease, and pesticide contamination. Lake Managua was considered dead because
of decades of pesticide runoff, toxic chemical pollution from lakeside
factories, and untreated sewage. Soil erosion and dust storms were also a
problem in Nicaragua due to deforestation. To tackle these crises,
the FSLN created the Nicaraguan Institute of Natural Resources and the
Environment. 

The Sandinistas were
victorious in the national election of November 4, 1984, gathering 67% of the
vote. The election was certified “free and fair” by the majority of
international observers, although the Nicaraguan political opposition and the
Reagan administration claimed political restrictions were placed on the
opposition by the government. The primary opposition candidate was the U.S.-backed
Arturo Cruz, who succumbed to pressure from the United States government not to
take part in the 1984 elections. Other opposition parties such as the Conservative
Democratic Party and the Independent Liberal Party were free to denounce
the Sandinista government and participate in the elections. Later, historians
such as Christopher Andrews did find evidence that the FSLN was actively
suppressing right-wing opposition parties while leaving moderate parties alone.

Communist Leanings and U.S. Contras

American support for the Somoza
family soured diplomatic relations with Nicaragua. The FSLN government
was committed to a Marxist ideology, with many leading Sandinista individuals continuing
long-standing relationships with the Soviet Union and Cuba. U.S. President Carter
initially hoped that continued American aid to the new government would keep
the Sandinistas from forming a Marxist-Leninist government aligned with the
Soviet bloc, but the Carter administration allotted the Sandinistas minimal
funding, and the Sandinistas resolutely turned away from the United States, investing
Cuban and East European assistance into a new army of 75,000. The buildup
included T-55 heavy tanks, heavy artillery, and HIND attack helicopters, an
unprecedented military buildup that made the Sandinista Army more powerful than
all of its neighbors combined. 

The first challenge to the
powerful new army came from the Contras, groups of Somoza’s National Guard that
had fled to Honduras and were organized, trained, and funded by CIA elements
involved in cocaine trafficking in Central America. The Contra chain of command
included some ex-National Guardsmen, including Contra founder and commander
Enrique Bermúdez. One prominent Contra commander, however, was ex-Sandinista
hero Edén Pastora, aka “Commadante Zero”, who rejected the Leninist orientation
of his fellow commandantes. The Contras operated out of camps in neighboring Honduras
to the north and Costa Rica to the south. They engaged in a systematic campaign
of terror among the rural Nicaraguan population er to disrupt the
social reform projects of the Sandinistas. The Contra campaign and supporting Reagan administration came under criticism for the brutality and
numerous human rights violations related to these operations, including the
destruction of health centers, schools, and cooperatives at the hands of the
rebels.

With the election of Ronald
Reagan in 1980, relations between the United States and the Sandinista regime became an
active front in the Cold War. The Reagan administration insisted that the
Sandinistas posed a Communist threat, reacting particularly to the support
provided to them by Cuban president Fidel Castro and the Sandinistas’ close
military relations with the Soviets and Cubans. Opposition to the Sandanistas also
furthered the Reagan administration’s desire to protect U.S. interests in the
region, which were threatened by the policies of the Sandinista government. The
U.S. quickly suspended aid to Nicaragua and expanded the supply of arms and
training to the Contra rebels in neighboring Honduras, as well as allied groups
based in Costa Rica. American pressure against the government escalated
throughout 1983 and 1984. The Contras began a campaign of economic sabotage and
disrupted shipping by planting underwater mines in Nicaragua’s Port of Corinto,
an action condemned by the International Court of Justice as illegal. The U.S. refused to pay restitution and claimed that the ICJ was not competent to judge
the case. The UN General Assembly also passed a resolution in order to pressure
the U.S. to pay the fine. 

On May 1, 1985, Reagan issued an executive order that imposed a full
economic embargo on Nicaragua, which remained in force until March 1990.
However, in 1982, legislation was enacted by the U.S. Congress to prohibit
further direct aid to the Contras. Reagan’s officials attempted to illegally
supply them out of the proceeds of arms sales to Iran and third-party
donations, triggering the Iran-Contra Affair of 1986–87. Mutual exhaustion,
Sandinista fears of Contra unity and military success, and mediation by other
regional governments led to the Sapoa ceasefire between the Sandinistas and the
Contras on March 23, 1988. Subsequent agreements were designed to reintegrate
the Contras and their supporters into Nicaraguan society in preparation for
general elections.

36.5.4: Colombia and the FARC

Learning Objective

Summarize
the history of conflict between the FARC and the Colombian government

Key Points

• The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia—People’s
  Army (FARC) is a guerrilla movement involved in the continuing Colombian armed
  conflict since 1964. It was formed by Manuel Marulanda Vélez in the aftermath
  of the Lleras government’s unsuccessful attacks on communist communities.
• Initially, FARC rejected any involvement in the
  emerging phenomenon of drug growing and trafficking, but during the 1980s, the
  group gradually came to accept it as a burgeoning business.
• La Uribe Agreement called for a ceasefire
  between the government and FARC, which lasted from 1984 until 1987. In 1985,
  members of FARC-EP, along with a large number of other leftist and communist
  groups, formed a political party known as the Union Patriótica.

• Towards the end of 1990, the army attacked
  a compound known as Casa Verde, which houses the National Secretariat of the
  FARC-EP, justifying the attack by FARC-EP’s lack of commitment to the peace
  process.

• On June 3, 1991, dialogue resumed between the
  Simon Bolivar Guerrilla Coordinating Board and the government. However, armed attacks by both sides continued. The negotiations
  were broken off in 1993 when no agreement could be reached.
• Another round of negotiations began on November
  7, 1998, under President Andres Pastrana, who granted FARC-EP a 42,000-square-kilometer safe
  haven as a confidence-building measure. Unfortunately, the peace
  talks ended on February 21, 2002, due to a series of high-profile guerrilla
  actions.
• For most of the period between 2002 and 2005, FARC-EP
  was believed to be in strategic withdrawal due to the increasing military and
  police actions of President Alvaro Uribe.

• Military offensives carried out under former
  President Uribe and President Santos have significantly reduced the
  number of FARC combatants and reduce FARC territorial control.

• The Colombian government under President Santos and
  FARC signed a peace deal on November 24, 2016, and Congress approved it on
  November 30, 2016.

Key Terms

ceasefire

A temporary
stoppage of war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive
actions.

guerrilla

A
participant in an irregular form of warfare in which small groups engage in military
tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run
tactics, and mobility to fight a larger and less mobile traditional military.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia—People’s Army (FARC)
is a guerrilla movement involved in the continuing Colombian armed conflict
since 1964. It employs a variety of military tactics in
addition to more unconventional methods, including terrorism. The FARC-EP,
formed during the Cold War as a Marxist-Leninist peasant force, promotes
a political line of agrarianism and anti-imperialism. The operations of the FARC-EP
were funded by kidnap and ransom, illegal mining, extortion or taxation of
various forms of economic activity, and the taxation, production, and
distribution of illegal drugs. The United Nations has estimated that 12% of all
killings of civilians in the Colombian conflict have been committed by FARC and
ELN guerrillas, with 80% committed by right-wing paramilitaries, and the
remaining eight percent committed by security forces.

History of the Conflict

Communists were active throughout rural and urban Colombia
immediately following World War I. The Colombian Communist Party
(PCC) began establishing “peasant leagues” in rural areas and “popular fronts”
in urban areas, calling for improved living and working conditions, education, and
rights for the working class. However, many of the PCC’s attempts at organizing
peasants were met with violent repression by the Colombian government and the
landowning class. These groups began networking together to present a defensive
front against the state-supported violence of large landholders. Members
organized strikes, protests, and land seizures, and organized
communist-controlled “self-defense communities” in southern Colombia that were
able to resist state military forces while providing for the subsistence needs
of the populace. 

In 1961, a guerrilla leader and long-time PCC organizer
named Manuel Marulanda Vélez declared an independent “Republic of
Marquetalia.” The Lleras government attempted unsuccessfully to drive out the guerrillas, due to fear that a revolution similar
to that of Cuba’s may develop. Several army outposts were set up in the area
and the Colombian government began routinely attacking communist groups in an
attempt to reassimilate territories under the influence of communists. In 1964,
Manuel Marulanda Vélez and other PCC members formed FARC. Sixteen thousand
Colombian troops attacked the community, which only had 48 armed fighters.
Marulanda and 47 others fought against government forces at Marquetalia and
then escaped into the mountains along with other fighters. These 48 men formed
the core of FARC, which later grew in size to hundreds of fighters.

Initially, FARC rejected any involvement in the emerging
phenomenon of drug growing and trafficking, but during the 1980s, the group
gradually came to accept it as it became a burgeoning business. Taxes on drug
producers and traffickers were introduced as a source of funding and increased
income from the “coca boom” allowed them to expand into an irregular army able
to stage large-scale attacks on Colombian troops. This in part led to the Seventh
Guerrilla Conference held by FARC in 1982, which called for a major shift in
FARC’s strategy. FARC had historically been doing most of its fighting in rural
areas and was limited to small-scale confrontations with Colombian military
forces. FARC began sending fighters to Vietnam and the Soviet Union for
advanced military training. They also planned to move closer to middle-sized
cities, as opposed to only remote rural areas, and closer to areas rich in
natural resources to create a strong economic infrastructure. It was
also at this conference that FARC added the initials “EP”, for
“Ejército del Pueblo” or “People’s Army”, to the
organization’s name.

Uribe Agreement and the Union Patriótica

Also in the early 1980s, President Belisario Betancur began
discussing the possibility of peace talks with the guerrillas. This led to the
1984 La Uribe Agreement, which called for a ceasefire that lasted
from 1984 until 1987. In 1985, members of the FARC-EP, along with a large
number of other leftist and communist groups, formed a political party known as
the Union Patriótica (“Patriotic Union”, UP). The UP sought constitutional
reform, more democratic local elections, political decentralization, and the end
of the two-party system dominated by Liberal and Conservative parties. They
also pursued socioeconomic reforms such land redistribution, greater health and
education spending, the nationalization of foreign businesses, Colombian banks,
transportation, and greater public access to mass media. 

While many members of the UP were involved with the FARC-EP,
the large majority of them were not and came from a wide variety of backgrounds
such as labor unions and socialist parties. In the cities, the FARC-EP began
integrating itself with the UP and forming Juntas Patrióticas (or
“solidarity cells”) – small groups of people associated with labor
unions, student activist groups, and peasant leagues, who traveled into the
barrios discussing social problems, building support for the UP, and
determining the sociopolitical stance of the urban peasantry. The UP performed
better in elections than any leftist party in Colombia’s history. In
1986, UP candidates won 350 local council seats, 23 deputy positions in departmental
assemblies, nine seats in the House, and six seats in the Senate. The 1986
Presidential candidate, Jaime Pardo Leal, won 4.6% of the national vote.

During the ceasefire, the Colombian government continued its
negotiations with the FARC-EP and other armed groups, some of which were
successful. Some groups that demobilized during this period include the EPL,
the ERP, the Quintin Lame Armed Movement, and the M-19. Towards the end of
1990, however, the army, with no advance warning and while negotiations were
still ongoing, attacked a compound known as Casa Verde, which houses the
National Secretariat of the FARC-EP. The Colombian government argued that the attack
was caused by the FARC-EP’s lack of commitment to the peace process.

Peace Negotiations

On June 3, 1991, dialogue resumed between the Simon Bolivar
Guerrilla Coordinating Board and the government. The conflict did not halt,
however, and armed attacks by both sides continued. The renewed negotiations
were broken off in 1993 when no agreement could be reached. A letter written by
a group of Colombian intellectuals, including Gabriel Garcia Marquez, to the
Coordinating Board was published denouncing the approach taken by the FARC-EP
and the dire consequences it was having on the country. The Coordinating Board disappeared
not long afterwards and the guerrilla groups continued their activities
independently.

FARC guerrillas

FARC guerrillas marching in formation during the Caguan peace talks (1998–2002).

Renewed negotiations began on November 7, 1998, under
President Andres Pastrana, who granted FARC-EP a 42,000-square-kilometer (16,200-square-mile)
safe haven as a confidence-building measure. Unfortunately, the
peace talks ended on February 21, 2002, due to a series of high-profile
guerrilla actions, including the hijacking of an aircraft, sieges on a number
of small towns and cities, several political kidnappings, and the arrest of the
Irish Colombia Three, a group of IRA members who allegedly were training FARC-EP
militants to make bombs. Pastrana ordered the armed forces to start retaking
the FARC-EP controlled zone.

The Uribe and Santos Administrations

For most of the period between 2002 and 2005, the FARC-EP
was believed to be in strategic withdrawal due to the increasing military and
police actions of President Alvaro Uribe, which led to the capture or desertion
of many fighters and medium-level commanders. Uribe ran for office on an
anti-FARC-EP platform and was determined to defeat the guerrillas in a bid to
restore confidence in the country. Uribe’s own father was killed by FARC-EP
in an attempted kidnapping in 1983. Nonetheless, FARC interventions and
violence continued throughout Uribe’s administration and well into that of his
successor, Juan Manuel Santos. 

Álvaro Uribe

President Álvaro Uribe intensified military operations against the FARC-EP, seeking to defeat them.

Military offensives carried out under former President Uribe
and President Santos have significantly reduced the number of FARC
combatants and FARC territorial control, pushing guerrillas to more
remote and sparsely populated regions, often close to territorial or internal
borders. On June 23, 2016, a ceasefire accord was signed between the FARC-EP
and Colombian government. Under the accord, the Colombian government agreed to
support massive investment for rural development and facilitate the FARC’s
reincarnation as a political party. FARC promised to help to eradicate illegal
drug crops, remove landmines in areas of conflict, and offer reparations to
victims. FARC leaders can avoid prosecution by acts of reparation to victims
and other community work. However, during a referendum held October 2, 2016,
Colombians voted to reject the peace deal with FARC by 50.2% to 49.8%.

The government met with victims and peace opponents after
the referendum was rejected, receiving over 500 proposed changes, and continued
to negotiate with FARC. A revised agreement was announced on November 12, 2016,
which would require parliamentary approval rather than a nationwide referendum.
Among the reported 60 new or modified terms was a provision for FARC assets to
be distributed for victim compensation. FARC members would be able to establish
a political party and be granted full immunity for full confession and
cooperation, although drug trafficking would be assessed on a case-by-case
basis. Peace terms would be enforced by a Special Justice for the Peace, who
would report to the Constitutional Court and not to an international body.
Additionally, both Parliament and the Special Justice would have the ability to
modify terms of the agreement as seen necessary.

The Colombian government and FARC signed the
revised peace deal on November 24, 2016, and Congress approved it on November
30, 2016.