the independence of Guatemala

On September 15, 1821, the Captaincy-general of Guatemala officially proclaimed its independence from Spain and its incorporation into the Mexican Empire, which was dissolved two years later. This region had been formally subject to New Spain throughout the colonial period, but as a practical matter was administered separately. 

The Guatemalan provinces formed the United Provinces of Central America, also called the Central American Federation. That federation dissolved in civil war from 1838 to 1840.

Guatemala's Rafael Carrera was instrumental in leading the revolt against the federal government and breaking apart the Union. 





some soldiers of the guerrilla

The 1970s saw the birth of two new guerrilla organizations, The Guerrilla Army of the Poor (EGP) and the Organization of the People in Arms (ORPA), who began and intensified by the end of the seventies, guerrilla attacks that included urban and rural guerrilla warfare, mainly against the military and some of the civilian supporters of the army.

The Guatemalan Civil War ended in 1996 with a peace accord between the guerrillas and the government, negotiated by the United Nations through intense brokerage by nations such as Norway and Spain. Both sides made major concessions.

More than 450 Mayan villages were destroyed and over 1 million people became displaced within Guatemala or refugees. Over 200,000 people, mostly Mayan, were killed during the civil war.