Roots of Injustice: Land, Power, and Resistance in Guatemala

A small corn field on Acatenango Volcano, in the Chimaltenango Department of Guatemala. (Image Source: Photograph taken by Christopher Unruh in Guatemala, September 2024)

By Christopher Unruh and Amanda Clark

Throughout Guatemala’s history, land has acted as a nexus for economic and political power. Unequal power dynamics between local communities and foreign landowners, from colonial powers to multinational corporations (MNCs), have long led to the severance of Indigenous Guatemalans from their ancestral lands, driving profound human suffering and environmental degradation. In the face of empire, Indigenous resistance calls for strengthened land tenure, human rights protection, and governance systems that respond to the needs of local populations rather than prioritizing foreign dollars.

A History of Violence and Dispossession

Colonial powers violently seized Indigenous Guatemalan lands, forcing communities into servitude on vast plantations. After Guatemala gained independence in 1821, military regimes and landholding elites upheld this feudal system,effectively concentrating land in the hands of a few at the expense of the great majority.^[1]

A significant attempt to change the status quo occurred when President Árbenz introduced the 1952 Agrarian Reform Law to redistribute uncultivated land to the landless.^[2] However, this effort was short-lived. The reforms conflicted with the interests of powerful U.S. MNCs, like the United Fruit Company, which held 42% of Guatemala’s arable land.^[3] These corporations pressured the U.S. government to intervene, leading to a CIA-backed coup that ousted Árbenz and reversed the reforms.^[4]

In 1960, government forces battled left-wing guerilla groups under the pretext of “combating communism.” For the next 36 years, Guatemala was plunged into political violence, with Indigenous communities targeted in episodes of mass violence.^[5] Despite the grave human rights concerns, the U.S. government would materially support the Guatemalan military.^[6]

Throughout the Guatemalan Civil War, land acted as a site at which violence was perpetuated. The military’s scorched earth campaign included deliberate environmental destruction of water sources, crops, and ecosystems as a tool of genocide.^[7] These devastating tactics forced an estimated 500,000 to 1.5 million mostly Indigenous Guatemalans to flee their lands, leaving a legacy of profound human suffering and environmental degradation.^[8] 

The long-term consequences of this environmental destruction continue to reverberate today, as Indigenous communities in Guatemala struggle with diminished natural resources, loss of agricultural land, and the ongoing effects of displacement.^[9] These historical injustices have compounded systemic inequalities, leaving lasting scars on both the land and the people who depend on it for survival.

Peace Process Reforms

The 1996 Peace Accords sought to address land grievances through land access and legal support.^[10] However, these reforms were poorly implemented.^[11] Elite groups resisted land redistribution, while landless populations faced threats and inadequate support.^[12] 

Guatemala remains the most unequal country in Central America in terms of land distribution.^[13] In the first two decades of peace process implementation, only 4% of arable land was redistributed to less than 5% of landless families.^[14] Today, the largest 2.5% of farms (mostly industrial) occupy 65% of Guatemala’s agricultural land, while 88% of farms (smallholder) operate on a mere 16% of arable land.^[15] 

From toppling a president to fueling a genocidal war, it is clear that the U.S. foreign policy in Guatemala centers on protecting the interests of U.S. companies. This disturbing pattern of prioritizing corporate interests over human rights continues, as U.S. companies in Guatemala remain entangled in exploitative practices, perpetuating economic and social disparities.

Extractive Industry and Land Dispossession

Foreign-backed megaprojects like mining, hydroelectric dams, and industrial agriculture, exacerbate Guatemalan land inequality and further dispossess Indigenous communities today. These projects are facilitated by free trade agreements with the U.S. and Europe, which favor MNCs at the expense of local communities, and are often accompanied by military repression and environmental damage.^[16] Hydroelectric plants have diverted rivers away from Indigenous land while mining operations have contaminated ecosystems.^[17] One case involves the decades-long battle between the Maya Q’eqchi people of Agua Caliente, who have sued the Guatemalan state for violating their land rights by permitting damaging mining operations on their territory.^[18]

Individuals who resist these exploitative megaprojects face persecution, criminalization, and even assassination. Since 2012, 86 land defenders have been killed in Guatemala, making it one of the deadliest countries in the world for environmental activists.^[19]In 2023, half of the defenders killed in Guatemala were Indigenous.^[20]

Furthermore, environmental degradation and land dispossession caused by extractive industry directly influence the high northward emigration rates from Maya-majority regions, like Huehuetenango, Quiché, and San Marcos. These regions face the worst land conflicts, intensified by U.S. funding to Guatemalan security forces who have been implicated in human rights abuses.^[21]U.S. foreign policy continues to dispossess Indigenous and local communities from their lands, even as U.S. presidents decry human rights abuse and Central American migration.

A Call for Justice

Despite the grim reality, resistance remains strong. Indigenous, local, and other grassroots groups in Guatemalan civil society continue to oppose the extractivist development that harms their lands and communities.^[22] 

Their struggles have even been brought to the international stage. In 2023, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled in favor of the Maya Q’eqchi people, declaring that the Guatemalan state violated their collective land rights. The court ordered a halt to mining activities and demanded legislative action to protect Indigenous land ownership.^[23] 

Additionally, pressure mounts for Guatemala to fully ratify the Escazú Agreement, a treaty joined by seventeen other Latin American countries. Implementing this treaty requires public participation in environmental decision-making, which could protect communities from violence against the land and the people defending it.^[24] 

Guatemala’s current crisis is the result of centuries of exploitation, both by internal elites and foreign interests. While legal victories and grassroots resistance offer hope, structural transformation requires a commitment by the Guatemalan government to land reform and legal protections for Indigenous communities. For the international community, true change means holding corporations accountable, demanding adherence to international human rights standards, reforming trade agreements, and supporting grassroots movements. Unfortunately, true change is impossible if the perpetrators of harm – the U.S. government and the corporations it protects – can evade accountability and remain free from justice.

Ultimately, Guatemala represents a microcosm of the larger Latin American struggle against neo-imperial land exploitation. The systematic murder of Indigenous defenders – a global crisis – is particularly concentrated in “America’s backyard,” a region long marred by U.S. interventionism and the relentless pursuit of profit by MNCs. In Guatemala, the violent repression of those who resist land dispossession is not an isolated issue but reflects a broader pattern of foreign-backed exploitation that is rooted in colonialism and persists through modern economic policies. This ongoing violence against Indigenous communities underscores the persistence of imperialist forces that continue to rob local populations of their right to land, livelihoods, and life.

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[1] The Center for Justice & Accountability. “Guatemala – CJA.” The Center for Justice & Accountability, 2009. https://cja.org/where-we-work/guatemala/; U.S. Agency for International Development, “Guatemala Conflict Vulnerability Assessment: Final Report,” 2005.

[2] Zinn Education Project, “June 27, 1954: Elected Guatemalan Leader Overthrown in CIA-Backed Coup – Zinn Education Project,” Zinn Education Project, 2014, https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/jacobo-arbenz-guzman-deposed/.; PBS, “Timeline: Guatemala’s Brutal Civil War,” PBS NewsHour, March 7, 2011, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/latin_america-jan-june11-timeline_03-07.

[3] Zinn Education Project, “June 27, 1954: Elected Guatemalan Leader Overthrown in CIA-Backed Coup – Zinn Education Project,” Zinn Education Project, 2014, https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/jacobo-arbenz-guzman-deposed/.

[4] Zinn Education Project, “June 27, 1954: Elected Guatemalan Leader Overthrown in CIA-Backed Coup – Zinn Education Project,” Zinn Education Project, 2014, https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/jacobo-arbenz-guzman-deposed/.; PBS, “Timeline: Guatemala’s Brutal Civil War,” PBS NewsHour, March 7, 2011, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/latin_america-jan-june11-timeline_03-07.

[5] Nieves Zúñiga, “Guatemala – Context and Land Governance,” Land Portal, November 29, 2023, https://landportal.org/book/narratives/2023/guatemala.; PBS, “Timeline: Guatemala’s Brutal Civil War,” PBS NewsHour, March 7, 2011, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/latin_america-jan-june11-timeline_03-07.

[6] Valdevit, Danielle. “The Role of the United Stated in the Guatemalan Genocide.” SURFACE at Syracuse University, 2020. https://surface.syr.edu/chronos/vol14/iss1/7.

[7] The Center for Justice & Accountability. “Guatemala – CJA.” The Center for Justice & Accountability, 2009. https://cja.org/where-we-work/guatemala/.

[8] The Center for Justice & Accountability. “Guatemala – CJA.” The Center for Justice & Accountability, 2009. https://cja.org/where-we-work/guatemala/; Nieves Zúñiga, “Guatemala – Context and Land Governance,” Land Portal, November 29, 2023, https://landportal.org/book/narratives/2023/guatemala.; U.S. Agency for International Development, “Guatemala,” LandLinks, 2010, https://www.land-links.org/country-profile/guatemala/#1528913052053-29a90556-01ef.

[9] U.S. Agency for International Development, “Guatemala,” LandLinks, 2010, https://www.land-links.org/country-profile/guatemala/#1528913052053-29a90556-01ef.

[10] Brown, M. J., Daly, J., Hamlin, K., Guatemala Land Conflict Assessment, January 2005; Nieves Zúñiga, “Guatemala – Context and Land Governance,” Land Portal, November 29, 2023, https://landportal.org/book/narratives/2023/guatemala.

[11] U.S. Agency for International Development, “Guatemala Conflict Vulnerability Assessment: Final Report,” 2005.

[12] Brown, M. J., Daly, J., Hamlin, K., Guatemala Land Conflict Assessment, January 2005

[13] U.S. Agency for International Development, “Guatemala,” LandLinks, 2010, https://www.land-links.org/country-profile/guatemala/#1528913052053-29a90556-01ef.

[14] Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, “Guatemala: Ten Years after Peace Accords, Key Provisions Benefiting the Displaced Remain Unimplemented,” 2006, https://upr-info.org/sites/default/files/documents/2013-08/internal_displacement_monitoring_centre_guatemala_add_1_2008.pdf.

[15] U.S. Agency for International Development, “Guatemala,” LandLinks, 2010, https://www.land-links.org/country-profile/guatemala/#1528913052053-29a90556-01ef.

[16] Nieves Zúñiga, “Guatemala – Context and Land Governance,” Land Portal, November 29, 2023, https://landportal.org/book/narratives/2023/guatemala.; European Commission, “EU-Central America Association Agreement | Access2Markets,” trade.ec.europa.eu, December 1, 2013, https://trade.ec.europa.eu/access-to-markets/en/content/eu-central-america-association-agreement.

[17] Giovanni Batz, “Extractive Industries in Guatemala: Historic Maya Resistance Movements,” ReVista, March 4, 2023, https://revista.drclas.harvard.edu/extractive-industries-in-guatemala-historic-maya-resistance-movements/

[18] “Updated: Guatemala’s Maya Q’eqchi’ Community Pin Hopes on Human Rights Court after a 40-Year Battle to Protect Their Land – Rights + Resources – Supporting Forest Tenure, Policy, and Market Reforms,” Rights and Resources Initiative, February 10, 2022, https://rightsandresources.org/blog/guatemalas-maya-qeqchi/.

[19] Global Witness, “Global Witness 2023-2024 Annual Report – Missing Voices: The Violent Erasure of Land and Environmental Defenders Worldwide,” ReliefWeb, September 9, 2024, http://reliefweb.int/report/world/global-witness-2023-2024-annual-report-missing-voices-violent-erasure-land-and-environmental-defenders-worldwide-enpt.

[20]  Global Witness, “Global Witness 2023-2024 Annual Report – Missing Voices: The Violent Erasure of Land and Environmental Defenders Worldwide,” ReliefWeb, September 9, 2024, http://reliefweb.int/report/world/global-witness-2023-2024-annual-report-missing-voices-violent-erasure-land-and-environmental-defenders-worldwide-enpt.

[21] Brown, Rich. “Land Conflicts Targeting Indigenous Communities Intensify in Northern Guatemala.” North American Congress on Latin America, 19 Dec. 2022, nacla.org/land-conflicts-targeting-indigenous-communities-intensify-northern-guatemala.; Lisa Murken and Christoph Gornott, “The Importance of Different Land Tenure Systems for Farmers’ Response to Climate Change: A Systematic Review,” Climate Risk Management 35 (February 2022): 100419, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crm.2022.100419.; Giovanni Batz, “Extractive Industries in Guatemala: Historic Maya Resistance Movements,” ReVista, March 4, 2023,

[22] Copeland, Nicholas, “Politicizing water: Rescaling resistance to extractive development in Guatemala.” Geoforum 140 (2023): 103704.

[23] “Updated: Guatemala’s Maya Q’eqchi’ Community Pin Hopes on Human Rights Court after a 40-Year Battle to Protect Their Land – Rights + Resources – Supporting Forest Tenure, Policy, and Market Reforms,” Rights and Resources Initiative, February 10, 2022, https://rightsandresources.org/blog/guatemalas-maya-qeqchi/.

[24] Cultural Survival, “Escazú Agreement: A Landmark for Environmental Rights,” Cultural Survival, June 18, 2024, https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/escazu-agreement-landmark-environmental-rights.

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