Complete Thesis_double spaced abstract.pdf

its involvement in the conflict, the United States Ambassador states, “everyone knows the
historical context in which the conflict took place, but that doesn’t obscure the fact that the
violence was committed by Guatemalans against Guatemalans” (Central America Report, 1999).
Figure 6.2 below illustrates the levels of political violence between 1950 and 1995 and is
described below.
Figure 6.2
In Figure 6.2 the threshold line appears as a nearly constant linear line and was calculated
using Morrison and May’s (1994) finding that the threshold for high political violence appears at
incidences totaling .001 percent of the population. 31
Using the official census numbers the
threshold for each year was calculated and entered into the table. The incidences of political
violence were taken from the REMHI and the CEH, since neither the REMHI nor the CEH covers
31 Based on Stanley’s (1987) findings, (military) rural sweeps had the same if not more effect on migration,
the calculation for the threshold utilized all state sponsored violence as reported by the REMHI and CEH.
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