Guatemala - Democracy Under the Gun

During the cold war Guatemala was ripped apart by a fierce and long lasting civil war. The hyperexploitation of the land and working poor of the country including its large Indigenous Mayan population led to increased resistance which was met with vicious repression by the police and military.

This eventually led to a civil war as the now desperate population took to countryside and turned to armed resistance for defence. During the civil war despite the support of the international right wing including the American and British governments, accounts of the atrocities, mass murder, torture, sexual assault, mutilation of the dead, destruction of entire villages got out.

The resistance wasn't broken either, if anything it grew, so they were left with an increasingly unstable countryside and also growing international isolation. In 1986 the Guatemalan government tried to improve its image by having the generals step back and allow more participation from civilian politicians. Though civilian politicians fully on board with the military and the civil war. Essentially they attempted to pretend they have become a functioning democratic state and thus repaint the war as a defence against political extremists, instead of ethnic cleansing campaigns.

It didn't work, but a documentary film crew took advantage of the slightly more tolerant climate to make a film documenting how the regime operates and conducts its war.



Link https://youtu.be/r438T_tVcEo

Publication date 1987

Camera, Burleigh Wartes ; editor, Marcello Navarro F. ; music, Leslie Steinweiss

Examines the challenges facing the civilian government which came to power in Guatemala in 1986, especially in the areas of human rights, land tenure, and military control

Download https://archive.org/details/underthegundemocracyinguatemala