Committee for Peasant Unity
The Committee for Peasant Unity (Spanish: Comité de Unidad Campesina, CUC) was a indigenous Guatemalan labor organization.
Formation
In the aftermath of the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état, a series of leftist insurgencies began in the Guatemalan countryside, against the United States supported military governments of the country. A prominent guerrilla group among these insurgents was the Rebel Armed Forces (Spanish: Fuerzas Armadas Rebeldes, FAR).[1] The FAR was largely crushed by a counter-insurgency campaign carried out by the Guatemalan government with the help of the U.S. in the late 1960s.[1] Those of the FAR's leadership that had survived this campaign came together to form the EGP in Mexico City in the 1970s.[1] CUC was launched on 15 April 1978, and was described by its founder Pablo Ceto as a convergence of the leftist insurgency, and the indigenous peoples' movements.[2] Though it had close ties to the EGP, and was used by the EGP to mobilize supporters, it was a distinct organization.[3] It has been described as Guatemala's first national labor organization that was led by indigenous people.[4]
Activities
In early 1980, a strike led by the CUC forced the Guatemalan government to raise minimum wages by 200 percent,[5] from an equivalent of U.S. $1.12 to $3.20. The strike involved 70,000 workers from sugarcane plantations, as well as 40,000 cotton pickers.[4] In response, the government intensified its persecution of its critics, culminating in the Burning of the Spanish Embassy by police forces.[5] None of the demonstrators survived. CUC was heavily targeted by the Guatemalan government, particularly the military regime of Romeo Lucas Garcia, along with other rural cooperative movements.[4]
Civil war impacts
In July 1981 the Guatemalan army found a number of safe houses in Guatemala City, and based on the information it found in them, began a systematic campaign against guerrillas in the countryside. The campaign was led by Benedicto Lucas Garcia, the president's brother, who had received training in counterinsurgency from the French armed forces in Algeria. The army, supported by military vehicle shipments from the administration of U.S. President Ronald Reagan, began a scorched earth campaign.[6] In 1981 alone, between 11,000 and 13,500 people were killed, many of them bystanders. Some sources have said that of the 40 founders of CUC, only three or four survived this campaign.[6]
References
- Notes
- ^ a b c McAllister 2010, p. 280.
- ^ McAllister 2010, p. 279.
- ^ McAllister 2010, pp. 279, 283.
- ^ a b c Esparza 2009, p. 85.
- ^ a b McAllister 2010, pp. 288–289.
- ^ a b Esparza 2009, p. 86.
- Sources
- Esparza, Marcia; Huttenbach, Henry R.; Feierstein, Daniel (2009). "State Violence and Genocide in Latin America: The Cold War Years". Routledge Critical Terrorism Studies. Routledge. ISBN 9781135244958.
- McAllister, Carlota (2010). "A Headlong Rush into the Future". In Grandin, Greg; Joseph, Gilbert (eds.). A Century of Revolution. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. pp. 276–309.
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