Tierra Arrasada

The first stage of the army’s campaign, called tierra arrasada — literally, “razed earth” — lasted eighteen months and was clearly intended to traumatize the Maya so that they would never again entertain the idea of asserting their rights. Women were raped, children macheted. Populations were herded into churches and burned alive.

Many were settled into model villages collaboratively run by the army and various American evangelical Protestant missionaries. Supporting funds from the United States were raised through an organization called “International Love Lift,” backed by such fundamentalist luminaries as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson.

—The Heart of the Sky by Peter Canby

~ by tbarj on January 16, 2008.