Discrimination against Maya peoples in Guatemala

The Maya community makes up 51% of the population of Guatemala. Although a few dozen cultural groups inhabited the area, they were considered one Maya culture under the Spanish Empire. Under colonial Spanish rule, the Maya people were forced to leave their homelands, work as slaves for the Spanish colonists, and convert to Christianity.

Although Spanish colonial rule in Guatemala ended in 1821, the oppression of the Maya community continued. Following independence, the Ladino community took control of the social, economic, and political hierarchies within Guatemala. Throughout the seventeenth century, the Ladino population forced the Indigenous communities to be forms of slaves or cheap labor, to give up their lands, and assimilate into Guatemalan society.

While there was social relief for the Maya community in the mid-eighteenth century, this was ended by the 1954 U.S-backed military coup that directly led to the Guatemalan Civil War, which is now widely considered a genocide carried out by the Guatemalan government against the Maya population.

Although the Civil War ended with the 1996 Peace Accords, Maya oppression within Guatemala still continues through the economic, social, and political disparities the Indigenous peoples face. While the Pan-Maya movement has attempted to establish equality for the Maya people, there is still debate over the amount of success the movement has achieved.