On this day, July 18, in 1982

Over 250 Achi-Mayan people in the Guatemalan village of Plan de Sanchez were massacred by the armed forces of the nation’s US backed president, Rios Montt. Guatemala was in the middle of a 36-year Civil War, during which revolutionary groups resisted the oppressive policies of a string of conservative presidents. The violence peaked during Rios Montt’s Presidency, and in the early 80’s the Guatemalan government committed over 600 similar acts of genocide, targeting indigenous Guatemalans in a desperate attempt to destroy the guerilla uprising. Over 200,000 Guatemalans were killed. A peace treaty ended the civil war 1996 and Guatemala held a ‘democratic’ election that was supervised by the CIA.