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33-401: On 29 May 1978, the village of Panzós was the site of a massacre in which between 30 and 106 local inhabitants (figures vary) were killed by the army . The name Panzós means "place of the green waters" in reference to the nearby Polochic River and swamps full of alligators and birds. In late 19th century Alta Verapaz , German settlers owned almost 75% of the region's total land. It got to

66-622: A point that the Germans were taking over land and people and a governor reported that there were peasants who vanished, fleeing from the landowners. Julio Castellanos Cambranes The Polochic river valley was originally inhabited by Q'eqchi' and Poqomchi' peoples. The first Spanish settlement, according to Domingo Juárez, was founded there on 11 October 1825; however, other historians specify 11 October 1861 as its foundation date. Later on, government decree #38 of 1871, in which all Guatemalan municipalities were asked to elect representatives to

99-558: A very important commercial river port heavily used for coffee exports. The finished product was carried by oxen carts over poorly kept roads or on small boats through creeks to the port, and from there it was loaded into larger ships and sent to the Caribbean Sea and then on to Europe or other destinations. This archaic system changed drastically in the 1890s, once the Verapaz Railroad was built. The construction of

132-586: A week on Mondays and Thursdays, mail arrived by ship every Wednesday and cargo came from Livingston, Izabal . Besides, there were train stops in Santa Rosita, Santa Catalina La Tinta , and Papalhá . In 1898, it was reported that given the coffee prosperity in Cobán , which was the third largest city in Guatemala, the railroad was to be extended to that city. The railroad was in operation until 1965, when it

165-627: Is again used in 1695 for the Sicilian Vespers of 1281, called "that famous Massacre of the French in Sicily" in the English translation of De quattuor monarchiis by Johannes Sleidanus (1556), translating illa memorabilis Gallorum clades per Siciliam , i.e. massacre is here used as the translation of Latin clades "hammering, breaking; destruction". The term's use in historiography

198-668: Is an event of killing people who are not engaged in hostilities or are defenseless. It is generally used to describe a targeted killing of civilians en masse by an armed group or person. The word is a loan of a French term for "butchery" or "carnage". Other terms with overlapping scope include war crime , pogrom , mass killing , mass murder , and extrajudicial killing . Massacre derives from late 16th century Middle French word macacre meaning "slaughterhouse" or "butchery". Further origins are dubious, though may be related to Latin macellum "provisions store, butcher shop". The Middle French word macecr "butchery, carnage"

231-577: Is first recorded in the late 11th century. Its primary use remained the context of animal slaughter (in hunting terminology referring to the head of a stag) well into the 18th century. The use of macecre "butchery" of the mass killing of people dates to the 12th century, implying people being "slaughtered like animals". The term did not necessarily imply a multitude of victims, e.g. Fénelon in Dialogue des Morts (1712) uses l'horride massacre de Blois ("the horrid massacre at [the chateau of] Blois") of

264-648: The Battle between Duke Charles and Sigismund , Duke Charles defeated King Sigismund 's troops in the Battle of Stångebro in Sweden in 1598 and then made an expedition to Finland, where he defeated the resistance during the Cudgel War and executed the estates in Turku without consulting Finland's leading nobles . An early use in the propagandistic portrayal of current events was the " Boston Massacre " of 1770, which

297-592: The National Assembly , shows Panzós a town in District 35. In 1891, Panzós became part of Alta Verapaz Department . After the Liberal revolution of 1871, president Justo Rufino Barrios (1873-1885) started granting land to German settlers in the area. By Decree #170 (or Census Decree), the government allowed confiscation of Indigenous land that had remained protected up to that point to make it easier for

330-740: The Northern Transversal Strip of Guatemala. The investors are trying to turn Guatemala into one of the main palm oil exporters, in spite of the decline on its international price. The most active region is found in Chisec and Cobán , in Alta Verapaz Department ; Ixcán in Quiché Department , and Sayaxché , Petén Department , where Palmas del Ixcán, S.A. (PALIX) is located, both with its own plantation and those of subcontractors. Another active region

363-743: The Rubelsanto oil field in Alta Verapaz. In 1976, when ten president Kjell Laugerud Garcia came to visit the Mayalán cooperative in Ixcán , Quiché -which was formed just 10 years before- said: "Mayalán is seated on top of the gold", hinting that the North Transversal Strip would no longer be used for agriculture and the cooperative movement, but rather by strategic exploitation of natural resources. After that presidential visit,

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396-503: The Saturday Night Massacre —the dismissals and resignations of political appointees during Richard Nixon 's Watergate scandal . Robert Melson (1982) in the context of the " Hamidian massacres " used a "basic working definition" of "by massacre we shall mean the intentional killing by political actors of a significant number of relatively defenseless people... the motives for massacre need not be rational in order for

429-601: The Army entered the business world with the Bank of the Army, pension funds and others. There is a large demand within Guatemala and some of its neighbors for edible oils and fats, which would explain how the African oil palm became so prevalent in the country in detriment of other oils, and which has allowed new companies associated to large capitals in a new investment phase that can be found particularly in some territories that form

462-570: The Congress, for agricultural development. In 1971 the indigenous Q'eqchi's from 24 villages in the Cancuén area, in southern Petén and north of Chisec were evicted by the Army, because it was considered that the region was rich in oil. Since 1974, oil had been commercially extracted in the FTN vicinity following discoveries made by Shenandoah Oil and Basic Resources, which were operating together in

495-720: The FTN as the northern part of the departments of Huehuetenango, Quiché, Alta Verapaz and Izabal and that same year priests of the Maryknoll order and the Order of the Sacred Heart began the first process of colonization, along with INTA, carrying settlers from Huehuetenango to the Ixcán sector in Quiché. The Northern Transversal Strip was officially created during the government of General Carlos Arana Osorio in 1970, by Decree 60–70 in

528-1108: The Franja Transversal del Norte (FTN) was in Sebol-Chinajá in Alta Verapaz . Sebol, then regarded as a strategic point and route through Cancuén river, which communicated with Petén through the Usumacinta River on the border with Mexico and the only road that existed was a dirt one built by President Lázaro Chacón in 1928. In 1958, during the government of General Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) financed infrastructure projects in Sebol. In 1960, then Army captain Fernando Romeo Lucas García inherited Saquixquib and Punta de Boloncó farms in northeastern Sebol. In 1963 he bought

561-412: The Germans and liberal military officers to get land of their own. Since then, the main commercial and agricultural activity in the region has been coffee , cardamom , and bananas . The main characteristics of the productive system of those years was the accumulation of land by a few owners and a sort of "hacienda servitude" based on the legal exploitation of the natives. In the 1880s, Panzós had become

594-472: The Verapaz Railroad began on 15 January 1894 with a contract for 99 years between Guatemala, then ruled by president José María Reina Barrios , and Walter Dauch, representative of the Verapaz Railroad & Northern Agency Ltd . The contract settled the rules for the construction, maintenance, and exploitation of a 30-mile railroad line between Panzós and Pancajché. Passenger service travelled twice

627-423: The abuses of landlords and military and civil authorities, peasants from the settlements of Cahaboncito, Semococh, Rubetzul, Canguachá, Sepacay, Moyagua, and La Soledad decided to protest in downtown Panzós. Hundreds of native men, women, and children went to the central square, bringing along their machetes and other agricultural instruments. One of those who participated in the demonstration later recalled: "the idea

660-601: The assassination of Henry I, Duke of Guise (1588), while Boileau , Satires XI (1698) has L'Europe fut un champ de massacre et d'horreur "Europe was a field of massacre and horror" of the European wars of religion . The French word was loaned into English in the 1580s, specifically in the sense "indiscriminate slaughter of a large number of people". It is used in reference to St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in The Massacre at Paris by Christopher Marlowe . The term

693-428: The construction of that corridor between 1975 and 1979, which eventually allowed political, military and powerful businessmen of the time become owners of many lands where potential timber and oil wealth lay. High Guatemalan government officers became large landowners and investors taking advantage of the peasant transfer policies, privileged insider information, expansion of public credit and major development projects;

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726-591: The entire department of Izabal ." On 27 May 1978, when natives from San Vicente (in Panzós) went to work the land on the shores of the Polochic river , the sons of a local landlord showed up with several armed soldiers and intimidated the natives to stop demanding land for themselves. The same day, the military detained two peasants in La Soledad and roughed up several more. There was a small disturbance and one of

759-593: The farm "San Fernando" El Palmar de Sejux and finally bought the "Sepur" farm near San Fernando. During those years, Lucas was in the Guatemalan legislature and lobbied in Congress to boost investment in that area of the country. In 1962, the DGAA became the National Institute of Agrarian Reform (INTA), by Decree 1551 which created the law of Agrarian Transformation. In 1964, INTA defined the geography of

792-425: The killings to be intentional... Mass killings can be carried out for various reasons, including a response to false rumors... political massacre... should be distinguished from criminal or pathological mass killings... as political bodies we of course include the state and its agencies, but also nonstate actors..." Similarly, Levene (1999) attempts an objective classification of "massacres" throughout history, taking

825-483: The municipality's inhabitants are Mayan , spread over the town of Chisec and approximately 140 communities. There used to be closer to 240 communities, but a number of these have officially split off to the new municipality of Raxruha , created by the Guatemalan Congress in 2008. The Q'eqchi' language is widely spoken there alongside Spanish. Decree 60-70, first article. The first settler project in

858-410: The peasants was killed. On 28 May, peasants from La Soledad and Cahaboncito presented a document previously prepared by FASGUA to mayor Walter Overdick Garcia in order for him to read it out loud. In that document, FASGUA asked the mayor to mediate "for the peasants' sake and try to solve the problems they had". On 29 May 1978, to pressure the authorities for their land demands and to protest against

891-494: The second being given to the phenomenon of many small killings adding up to a larger genocide . Chisec Chisec is a town and municipality in the north of the Guatemalan department of Alta Verapaz that was founded in 1813. It is situated at 230 metres (755 ft) above sea level . The municipality covers a territory of 1,244 km . The 2018 census documented the population at 84,553. Approximately 95% of

924-443: The term to refer to killings carried out by groups using overwhelming force against defenseless victims. He is excepting certain cases of mass executions , requiring that massacres must have the quality of being morally unacceptable . The term "fractal massacre" has been given to two different phenomena, the first being the fracturing of Aboriginal tribes by killing more than 30% of the tribe on one of their hunting missions, and

957-612: The two oil companies conducted exploration in Xacbal, near Mayalán in Ixcán, where they drilled the "San Lucas" well with unsuccessful results. These initial exploration, however, paved the way for future Ixcán and FTN oil experimentation, were also the main reason for building the dirt road that runs along the Strip. Shenandoah Oil, the National Institute of Agrarian Reform (INTA) and the Army Engineer Battalion coordinated

990-604: Was employed to build support for the American Revolution . A pamphlet with the title A short narrative of the horrid massacre in Boston, perpetrated in the evening of the fifth day of March, 1770, by soldiers of the 29th regiment was printed in Boston still in 1770. The term massacre began to see inflationary use in journalism in the first half of the 20th century. By the 1970s, it could also be used purely metaphorically, of events that do not involve deaths, such as

1023-587: Was not to fight anybody, we only wanted to clarify the land situation. People came from various locations and they did not have firearms with them". That same day, after an unclear provation, the army massacred the peasants who had gathered peacefully. An unclear number of people died under the fire of machine guns. Panzós has a tropical monsoon climate ( Köppen : Am ). 15°24′N 89°40′W  /  15.400°N 89.667°W  / 15.400; -89.667 Massacre Note: Varies by jurisdiction Note: Varies by jurisdiction A massacre

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1056-933: Was popularized by Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1781–1789), who used e.g. " massacre of the Latins " of the killing of Roman Catholics in Constantinople in 1182. The Åbo Bloodbath has also been described as a kind of massacre, which was a mass punishment carried out on the Old Great Square in Turku on November 10, 1599, in which 14 opponents of the Duke Charles (later King Charles IX ) in Finland were decapitated ; in

1089-779: Was superseded by truck and highways. The Northern Transversal Strip was officially created during the government of General Carlos Arana Osorio in 1970 by Legislative Decree 60-70 for agricultural development. The decree stated: "It is of public interest and national emergency, the establishment of Agrarian Development Zones in the area included within the municipalities: Santa Ana Huista , San Antonio Huista , Nentón , Jacaltenango , San Mateo Ixtatán , and Santa Cruz Barillas in Huehuetenango ; Chajul and San Miguel Uspantán in Quiché ; Cobán, Chisec , San Pedro Carchá , Lanquín , Senahú , Cahabón and Chahal , in Alta Verapaz and

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