Complete Thesis_double spaced abstract.pdf

appropriated, these groups were forced into the highlands; they were continually the targets of the
forced labor laws (REMHI, 1999, 181).
The third change was a strategy instituted during the Liberal Revolution, that persisted
throughout the twentieth century was the increased use of militias in the rural areas. In the rural
areas the centralized military was not able to easily target and enforce the forced labor laws. The
plantation owners increasingly (forcibly) recruited ladinos and indigenous Mayans to serve in
their militias; these paramilitary groups were given “military…civil and police powers” (REMHI,
1999, 182). The militias were responsible for tracking down workers who had not reported for
duty or who had not completed their allotted time for the year. In Guatemala all of the “Indians”
were required to keep a work book on their person at all times, the book would “list his [or her]
days of work”, any Indian that was “deemed insufficient” was to be punished with jail time or six
months of free labor (Galeano, 1973, 122). The militias were also responsible for enforcing the
punishments for avoiding forced labor. They would return the Indians to the coffee plantations
for their month long (or longer) deployments, as well as give out physical punishments and “in
many cases death” was the punishment (REMHI, 1999, 182).
The fourth change was also a strategy put into practice during the Liberal Revolution was
the increasingly common practice to exile political opponents and to use state sanctioned violence
against perceived political enemies. As the Conservatives and Liberals became more entrenched
in ideological warfare “exile, confiscation, and killing became common elements of the
competitive repertoire” (Weaver, 1999, 133-134). As an example, in 1898 two “prominent
businessmen from Quetzaltenango” were ordered to be executed [state sanctioned] after their
involvement in a failed plot to assassinate a local political chief (REMHI, 1999, 182).
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