Central American Crisis - Guatemala

Guatemala

Guatemala's civil war began in 1960, but the army and death squads appeared to have contained it. However, Guatemala also saw an increase in violence in the late 1970s, marked by the 1978 Panzós massacre. In 1982 the resurgent guerrilla groups united in the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity. The presidency of Efraín Ríos Montt (1982-1983), during which he implemented a strategy he called "beans and bullets," is widely considered the war's turning point. The Guatemalan government and the severely weakened guerrillas signed a peace agreement in December 1996, ending the war.