You probably have not heard of the Holocaust that did not take place in Germany and did not involve Jewish people.
That is why it is called the silent Holocaust.
In the 1970s, the Guatemalan military began a genocidal campaign of mass killings and disappearances of the indigenous Ixil Maya population.
In 1982, they employed a scorched earth campaign. Soldiers hunted down leftist guerrillas and systematically killed the Ixil Maya. Most of them were not part of guerrilla movements. They were teachers, farmers, students, and civilians.
Women, children, and the elderly were targeted.
The military carried out at least 626 massacres against the indigenous population. They destroyed more than 600 villages and killed most inhabitants.
In 1977, the human rights situation in Guatemala was so bad that U.S. President Jimmy Carter stopped military aid.
Can you guess which country kept supporting them?
Israel supported the brutal army. Israel began selling weapons in 1974. By 1983, there were 300 Israeli advisors in the country. They were embedded in security structures.
Israeli advisers helped hunt underground rebel groups. An Israeli computer became the nerve center of the armed forces.
The military forced the Ixil Maya into restricted model villages modeled after Israeli kibbutzim. Guatemalan military officers even referred to their campaign as the Palestinization of the Ixil Maya.
Some responsible leaders were later convicted of genocide. The judge noted that the Ixil Maya were victims of racism.
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