Civil Defense Patrols

The Civil Defense Patrols were local militias created by the government of Guatemala during the Guatemalan Civil War. They were created by decree of General Ríos Montt on 1 August 1982, though they began before that under President Romeo Lucas García. Officially, participation was voluntary, but many were forced to join. The patrols officially stopped 29 December 1996 per the peace treaty that ended the war, though some of the network remains and is used by former members demanding compensation for their involvement. At least 1,300,000 people were members of the patrols at the height of the war in 1983, and the total participants may have numbered 2,000,000. The members were often forced to torture and kill other villagers, at the threat of being killed themselves.

Creation

Most indigenous Mayans, who formed 60% of the population and the bulk of the insurgents, lived in areas known as the highlands. Between 1980 and 1981, the highlands were a war zone, as villages had organized in order to defend themselves and demand basic civil rights. To counter this, the government drew up a counterinsurgency plan. The first phase, called the pacification phase by the military, was created mainly by General Benedicto Lucas García, the brother of President García. It called for the complete destruction of villages considered supportive of the insurgents and for the creation of local civil defense patrols. This phase began to take affect under the rule of President García and was implemented the rest of the way by General Ríos Montt.