E/CN.4/2003/90/Add.2 page 6 I. BACKGROUND 5. The present status of the indigenous peoples in Guatemala is the result of a long process of colonial subjection of the Maya people starting in the sixteenth century, which was reinforced during the liberal period in the nineteenth century, when a governing class was formed that based its power and its privileges on large rural estates and the exploitation of indigenous labour, under authoritarian and property-based regimes. 6. A number of attempts to build a fairer society were repeatedly suppressed by force. A military coup in 1954 which overthrew the democratic regime that had been in power since 1944 triggered a cycle of violence that lasted almost half a century. During the 1960s, the revolutionary movement emerged against the background of a succession of military regimes and transitory civilian governments, nourishing a domestic armed conflict which continued for over 30 years until its formal conclusion with the Peace Agreements signed in 1996. 7. According to the Commission for Historical Clarification (CEH), which was set up under the Peace Agreements: “The evidence for this, throughout Guatemala’s history, but particularly so during the armed confrontation, lies in the fact that the violence was fundamentally directed by the State against the excluded, the poor and above all, the Mayan people, as well as against those who fought for justice and greater social equality.” “The anti-democratic nature of the Guatemalan political tradition has its roots in an economic structure, which is marked by the concentration of productive wealth in the hands of a minority. This established the foundations of a system of multiple exclusions, including elements of racism, which is, in turn, the most profound manifestation of a violent and dehumanizing social system. The State gradually evolved as an instrument for the protection of this structure, guaranteeing the continuation of exclusion and injustice.” “[…] Political violence was thus a direct expression of structural violence.” 8. CEH concluded that the military response to the challenge posed by the guerrilla movement had been excessive, and that in that context the bulk of the country’s indigenous population had been hard-hit by the violence and military repression during the long years of armed conflict. Through its investigation CEH discovered that: “State forces and related paramilitary groups were responsible for 93 per cent of the violations documented by CEH, including 92 per cent of the arbitrary executions and 91 per cent of forced disappearances. Victims included men, women and children of all social strata: workers, professionals, church members, politicians, peasants, students and academics; in ethnic terms, the vast majority were Mayans. “[…] The vast majority of the victims of the acts committed by the State were not combatants in guerrilla groups, but civilians.