Dear Editor,
Guatemala is a small country on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in south Central America, its population being about 12,728,111. For 50 years there has been on and off genocide in Guatemala. Some people, including the past president of Guatemala, believe that it is simply civil war. How could it be civil war when one side wasn’t fighting?

The largest Guatemalan genocide was between 1960 and 1981; over 200,000 Mayan Indians were murdered and “right-wing terror squads were unleashed to murder suspected subversives, although regular army units also participated extensively.” According to the Gun Owners Alliance. The Government of Guatemala continuously attacked the Mayans and “expected” they would fight back, which they did in some cases. The problem with this is the fact that they were attacking Mayan Indians, not people of a region of land they wanted or even a group of people that were conspiring against them. That makes this genocide.
There are countless survivor stories much like Jesús Osorio’s, “They took them one by one to a ravine that was about twenty meters from where we were. We heard shots, screams and crying." There is evidence that this has happened and even though it has been denied by some as genocide, José Efraín Ríos Montt (the previous president of Guatemala) stated to many different news sources that there was simply civil war taking place(Wikipedia), Many others and I feel that it should be recognized as genocide.
Without the help of countries such as the U.S.A, the Mayan race and others living in Guatemala are in danger. To raise awareness or even just to learn about this genocide go to www.preventgenocide.org/americas/guatemala/. Genocide doesn’t disappear with denial, and it will continue take place as long as we ignore it.

Sincerly,
Sam