The Guatemalan Guerrillas: The Struggle Begins 1960s–70

Guatemala has experienced tumultuous events in its history since the
conquest of Pedro Alvarado in 1523. In June 1954, Jacobo Arbenz, the reformist president, was overthrown by a coup organized by the CIA, which showed the power of US imperialism. From 1954-1960 Indigenous people and Communist sympathizers were murdered by the state, proving that anything that challenged the status quo was a threat. After the fall of Arbenz, Guatemalan politics suffered from instability, with five
military officers taking charge at various times from 1954 to 1958. President Miguel Ydígoras (1958-1963) assisted US imperialism by providing a base for training for Cuban exiles, prompting some military officers to rebel and attempt a coup that wasn't successful. With the failed coup, these military officers, Luis Turcios Lima, and Marco Antonio Yon Sosa, took to the jungles to initiate the guerrilla struggle. This paper explores the economic, political, and social conditions that resulted at the beginning of the Guatemalan revolutionary struggle. It goes into depth into the ideologies that guided the guerrillas, how they organized, why they chose the armed struggle over the electoral way and their internal debates with the Community Labor Party (PGT). This paper will use the methodological framework of Marxism-Leninism and historical materialism to show the dialectical relationship between capital, labor, race, and revolution. This paper pushes back on the historiography that claims that the guerrilla movement neglected to incorporate Indigenous people into its struggle. It also challenges the idea that the guerrillas held a paternalistic attitude toward Indigenous people. Although there were some negative sentiments towards them, as a whole, the movement pushed back on these racist ideas. My goal is to show how the situation surrounding guerrillas and taking the revolutionary road toward taking up arms is more complex than previously thought.