Abstract

VAZQUEZ OLIVERA, Mario. From State Terror to Extermination. Notes on the Massacres of Civilians in El Salvador and Guatemala during the 1980s. Rev. pueblos front. digit. [online]. 2023, vol.18, e675.  Epub Sep 14, 2023. ISSN 1870-4115.  https://doi.org/10.22201/cimsur.18704115e.2023.v18.675.

In the 1980s, extermination campaigns were carried out in parallel in El Salvador and Guatemala. This paper offers elements to sustain that the armies of both countries faced the challenge of insurgency by implementing similar mechanisms of «counterterror» or dirty war and mass killings. It is also possible to state that the dimensions of the extermination in El Salvador and Guatemala were comparable. In both cases the estimated number of people killed was equivalent to 1.5 % of the total population. However, beyond these figures, there were similar processes, both due to their strategic sense, as well as the implementation patterns and their fundamental consequences.

Keywords : civil war; genocide; counterinsurgency.

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