Complete Thesis_double spaced abstract.pdf

and the murder of thousands of peasants, students and organizers. The goals of Mano Blanca
were to “maintain a permanent state of fear and uncertainty” and to “blur the distinction between
official repression and death squad terror” (Jonas, 1991, 64). Under Colonel Arana, divisions
between the MLN and the military bring about the end of Mano Blanca in 1973.
The breakdown of Mano Blanca was not the end of right-wing paramilitary death squads
in Guatemala. Ojo por Ojo, or Eye for an Eye, emerged in the late 1960s as Mano Blanca was
falling apart. Unsurprisingly, many of the members of Ojo por Ojo were former members of
Mano Blanca. Similar to Mano Blanca, Ojo por Ojo received funding and aid from landowners,
the MLN and the government (Encyclopedia of Latin American Politics, 128-129). Members of
Ojo por Ojo included the minister of the interior Jorge Arenales Catalan, the defense minister
General Leonel Vassaux Martinez, and Congressman Mario Sandoval Alarcon, leader of the
MLN. Ojo por Ojo continued to target center-left politicians, students, organizers and peasants.
The University at San Carlos continued to be a popular target for Ojo por Ojo. Mano Blanca and
Ojo por Ojo were two of the more well know death squads, but there were many more that
existed during the late 1960s and early 1970s, Rosa Purpua, El Buitre Justiciero were two more of
the death squads that worked in conjunction with the New Anti-Communist Organization (NOA)
(Black, 1984, 46-47). The death squads and the NOA openly operated out of the military bases,
the chain of command easily traceable to the highest government offices.
The Guatemalan military had their own official counterinsurgency movement within the
military; the Mobile Military Police (PMA) was formed in the early 1960s. The PMA had a
centralized command structure and counterinsurgency units scattered throughout Guatemala, with
concentrations of units in rural areas. The military preferred to increase the number of military
police rather than increasing the domestic police force and creating competition for itself. The
military was actively recruiting and training during this period, the United States continued to
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