Guerrilla Army of the Poor
During the 1960s, revolutionary upheaval began in Guatemala City. After the armed movement was put down by the Guatemalan Army, the movement came back stronger than before. It was now called the Guerrilla Army of the Poor, and began an insurgency campaign against the government: the Guatemalan military adopted scorched earth tactics and started killing hundreds of thousands of indigenous Mayan peasants in the western highlands. During the 1960s, the Catholic Church in Guatemala was suppressed by anti-communist Guatemalan governments, due to suspected Marxist sympathies. Lower Catholic orders were also targeted by the military, as they were seen as subversive and instrumental in the spread of liberation theology. Guatemala again experienced more destruction in 1976 when an earthquake took the lives of 20,000 people and injured 80,000 more.