The Guatemalan Civil War was a civil war in Guatemala fought between the government of Guatemala and various leftist rebel groups supported chiefly by ethnic Maya indigenous people and Ladino peasants, who together make up the rural poor, from 1960 to 1996.

The government forces of Guatemala have been condemned for committing genocide against the Maya population of Guatemala during the civil war and for widespread human rights violations against civilians. The context of the struggle was amidst longstanding issues of land distribution with European-descended and foreign companies such as the United Fruit Company conflicting with the rural poor.