Abstract
The introduction sets the context for the book, introducing the key arguments that will be developed, and introducing the scholarship that will frame the research (genocide studies, political violence). The introduction also establishes the methodology that is adopted in the book.
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Notes
- 1.
Of a population of approximately 14,250,000, estimates vary as to the ethnic constituency of the Guatemalan population. More conservative figures estimate that the indigenous population amounts to approximately 40 % of the population, whilst non-indigenous or ladinos represent 60 %. These latter groups include indigenous people that no longer practice indigenous customs, or speak indigenous languages. Other figures posit that Guatemala’s indigenous peoples constitute the majority of the population. The country’s indigenous population is made up of Maya, Garífuna and Xinca peoples, the latter two groups populating the Caribbean and Eastern parts of Guatemala respectively, and the Maya concentrated in the highland regions and now in urban areas of the country, due to the rural exile initiated in the 1980s. The indigenous Maya population itself includes twenty-two ethnic groups and constitutes over 90 % of the indigenous population, while it is estimated that only approximately seventy people speak Xinca The twenty-two Mayan languages and groups are the following: Chuj, Akateko, Jakalteko, Q’anjob’al, Ixil, Uspanteko, Tektiteko, Awakateko, Sipakapense, Takaneko, Mam, Tzutujil, Kaqchiqel, Sakapulteko, Q’eqchi, Achi, Poqomchi’, Pokoman, K’iche’, Itza, Chortí and Maya-Mopan.
- 2.
Interview, Tiburcio Utuyy, Xix, Guatemala, April 2002.
- 3.
Interview, Tiburcio Utuyy, Xix, Guatemala, April 2002.
- 4.
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI95aYW62R4 (Accessed 5/10/2015).
- 5.
Yates’ documentary Granito: How to Nail a Dictator, into which this interview is incorporated, was utilised as evidence in the trial against Montt. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT2tYCvIgUI (Accessed 5/10/2015).
- 6.
See Kathryn Sikkink, The Justice Cascade: How Human Rights Prosecutions Are Changing World Politics (Norton & Company, 2011).
- 7.
See Naomi Roht-Arriaza,‘Prosecutions of Heads of State in Latin America’, in E.L. Lutz and C. Reiger (Editors), Prosecuting Heads of State (Cambridge University Press, 2009), Cath Collins Post-Transitional Justice: Human Rights Trials in Chile and El Salvador (Penn State University Press, 2010), Cath Collins, K. Hite and A. Joignant, The Politics of Memory in Chile: From Pinochet to Bachelet (Lynne Rienner, 2013) and Susan Kemp, ‘Guatemala Prosecutes former President Ríos Montt: New Perspectives on Genocide and Domestic Criminal Justice’, Journal of International Criminal Justice, Vol. 12, 2014, pp. 133–156.
- 8.
See Kemp (2014: 154).
- 9.
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWoshdpl8K4 (Accessed 4/10/2015).
- 10.
AJR–CALDH initially presented two cases for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The first case against former President Romeo Lucas García and his military high command was presented in 2000, with the case against Ríos Montt and his high command subsequently presented in 2001. See Roddy Brett (2016) ‘Peace without social reconciliation: indigenous struggles and the politics of validation in the wake of the Guatemalan Genocide’, in Journal of Genocide Research, Vol. 18, No.2.
- 11.
Interview, Nebaj, Quiché, July 2015.
- 12.
See Rachel McCleary (1999) for a discussion on the role of CACIF and the private sector during the country’s peace process.
- 13.
The civilian population is defined by article 3.1 of the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949), which relates to the obligatory protection of civilians in times of war and states persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed outside of combat by sickness, wounds, detention or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, colour, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth or any other similar criteria. Article 4.1 of the Additional Protocols relating to the protection of victims of non-international armed conflicts (Protocol II), 8 June 1977 prohibits orders that there shall be no survivors. Moreover, Article 4.2 states that ‘Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, the following acts against the persons referred to in paragraph 1 are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place: (a) violations against the life, health and physical or mental well-being of persons, in particular murder as well as cruel treatment such as torture, mutilation or any form of corporal punishment; (b) collective punishments; (c) taking of hostages; (d) acts of terrorism; (e) outrages against personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment, rape, enforced prostitution and any form of indecent assault; (f) slavery and the slave trade in all their forms; (g) pillage; (h) threats to commit any of the foregoing acts’. This book defines the civilian population negatively, that is, as non-combatant, based on the definitions and concepts of the Four Geneva Conventions. This conceptual, legal framework allows us to define combatants as: Members of the armed forces of a Party to the conflict, as well as members of militias and other voluntary corps, forming part of such armed forces; Members of other militias and members of other volunteer corps, including those of organised resistance movements, belonging to a Party to the conflict and operating in or outside their own territory, even if this territory is occupied, provided that such militias or volunteer corps, including such organised resistance movements, fulfil the following conditions: (i) that of being commanded by a person responsible for his subordinates, (ii) that of having a fixed distinctive sign recognisable at a distance, (iii) that of carrying arms openly and (iv) that of conducting their operations in accordance with the laws and customs of war.
- 14.
The CEH report registers 626 massacres, of which 50 % were committed between 1981 and 1983 (CEH 1999). According to the REMHI (Recovery of Historical Memory) report, published in 1998, the army was implicated in 90.52 % of the registered massacres, acting without extra-institutional support in 55 % of these massacres, and with PACs in the remaining 45 % of massacres. According to REMHI, the guerrilla committed 3.79 % of the registered massacres.
- 15.
See http://hmd.org.uk/page/holocaust-genocides (Accessed 4/10/2015). The charity refers to the Holocaust, Cambodia, Bosnia and Dafur.
- 16.
Richard English has correctly observed that ‘the deliberate targeting of civilians’ is not new in warfare, but rather, ‘has formed a major aspect of the experience’ (2013: 62).
- 17.
Azpuru (2012) argues that Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru have experienced armed conflict, whilst Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay and Uruguay experienced authoritarianism.
- 18.
- 19.
See http://povertydata.worldbank.org/poverty/region/LAC (Accessed 27/08/2014).
- 20.
Through the poverty headcount at both $2.50 and $4.00 per day. According to the UNDP’s multidimensional poverty index, for 2013, indigenous and non-indigenous poverty were 83 % and 49.0 % respectively, whilst the multidimensional extreme poverty index was at 47.2 % and 18.2 % for indigenous and non-indigenous populations, respectively. See http://www.desarrollohumano.org.gt/sites/default/files/sinopsis_desarrollo_humano.pdf (Accessed 28/08/2015).
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Brett, R. (2016). Introduction. In: The Origins and Dynamics of Genocide: . Rethinking Political Violence. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-39767-6_1
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