Panzós massacre
| Panzós | |
|---|---|
| Municipality of Guatemala | |
Port of Panzos in the 1900s
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 Panzós
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| Coordinates: 15°24′N 89°40′W / 15.400°N 89.667°W | |
| Country |
 Guatemala
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| Department |
 Alta Verapaz
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| Government | |
| • Mayor | Jaime León (LIDER) |
| Climate | Am |
Panzós (Spanish pronunciation: [panˈsos]) is a municipality in the Guatemalan department of Alta Verapaz.
On 29 May 1978, the village of Panzós was the site of a massacre in which between 30 and 106 local inhabitants (figures vary) were killed by the army.
The name Panzós means "place of the green waters", in reference to the nearby Polochic River and swamps full of alligators and birds.
The Polochic river valley was originally inhabited by q'eqchi' and poqomchi' peoples. The first Spanish settlement, according to Domingo Juárez, was founded there on 11 October 1825; however, other historians specify 11 October 1861 as its foundation date. Later on, government decree #38 of 1871, in which all Guatemalan municipalities were asked to elect representatives to the National Assembly shows Panzós as one of District 35 towns. In 1891, Panzós became part of Alta Verapaz Department for good.
After the Liberal revolution of 1871, president Justo Rufino Barrios (1873-1885) and started granting land to German settlers in the area. By Decree #170 (or Census Decree) the government allowed to confiscate the Indian land that had remained protected until then, to make it easier for the Germans and liberal military officers to get land of their own. Since then, the main commercial and agricultural activity in the region was coffee, cardamom and bananas. Thus, the main characteristics of the productive system of those years was the accumulation of land by a few owners, and a sort of "hacienda servitude", based on the legal exploitation of the natives.
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