• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.34
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• pp.147-172
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• 2014

The Guatemalan government and guerrilla forces(the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteco, URNG) signed peace accord in 1996, and ended civil conflict(1960-1996). The bloodiest governments of the 36-year-lond armed conflict were those of Lucas Garc?a, R?os Montt and Mej?a V?ctores, between 1978 and 1983. The war that Guatemala underwent resulted in more than 200,000 casualties, more than 83% of them Mayan, according to the report of the CEH(Comision para de Esclarecimiento Historico). 'Victoria 82' and 'Opreation Sof?a' were the strategy of military dictatorship to destory indigenous Mayan communities. This paper is to demonstrates that the Guatemalan state perpetrated a genocide against the indigenous population using racism to strengthening modern nation-state and this was because, historically and structurally, it possessed, in its intrinsic naturem the repressive, ideological and legal apparatus. To distinguish Maya from ladino is often linked to cultural and social discrimination and a system of racial ranking. Militaty dictatorship used the system of racial ranking to exterminate indigenous populations.