Scorched-Earth Tactics

Some of my posts have dealt with the U.S. coup and subsequent support of Guatemalan army forces. The following is a brief review of a February 1982 CIA declassified document. During this time the Guatemalan army were "instructed destroy all towns and villages which are cooperating with the Guerrilla Army of the Poor (EGP) and eliminate all sources of resistance. Civilians in the area who agree to collaborate with the army and who seek army protection are to be well treated and cared for in refugee camps." But later in the document it states that "Since the operation began, several villages have been burned to the ground, and a large number of guerrillas and collaborators have been killed." The document goes on to say, "Comment: When an army patrol meets resistance and takes fire from a town or village it is assumed that the entire town is hostile and it is subsequently destroyed." And then "an empty village is assumed to have been supporting the EGP, and it is destroyed." The reason is that the Guatemalan army "has created a situation in which the army can be expected to give no quarter to combatants and non-combatants alike."