Khthon documents mass graves, atrocity crimes, and forensic evidence from conflict zones worldwide. Our work is strictly humanitarian and apolitical.
This site may contain imagery and descriptions of deceased individuals, violent injuries, and human remains gathered in the course of active investigations. Content is presented for accountability and documentation purposes only.
Khthon documents mass graves, atrocity crimes, and forensic evidence from conflict zones worldwide. Our work is strictly humanitarian and apolitical.
This site may contain imagery and descriptions of deceased individuals, violent injuries, and human remains gathered in the course of active investigations.
Country / Region Overview
Guatemala's civil war (1960–1996) produced one of the hemisphere's most extensive clandestine grave landscapes, particularly during the early 1980s under the scorched-earth counterinsurgency campaigns.
Entire Maya communities were massacred, with victims buried in communal pits near villages, cornfields, schoolyards, or army barracks. Many killings were conducted by the Guatemalan military and civil patrols, targeting Indigenous populations suspected of supporting insurgents. Bodies were often left in shallow pits or stacked in caves, later covered by vegetation and farming activity. The 1999 UN-backed truth commission concluded that acts of genocide were committed against Maya groups.
"Guatemala exemplifies the challenge of graves concealed in agricultural landscapes where plowing and erosion erase surface traces."
— Khthon Field Assessment
Investigations have been led by the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation (FAFG), which has excavated over 1,000 clandestine graves and recovered more than 6,000 sets of remains. Their work combines forensic excavation, DNA testing, and survivor testimony to return identities to families and to build evidence for trials. International partners, including the UN and human rights NGOs, have supported these exhumations, making Guatemala a reference for civil-society–driven forensic justice.
For Khthon, Guatemala exemplifies the challenge of graves concealed in agricultural landscapes where plowing and erosion erase surface traces. Integrating time-series imagery with testimonies from surviving villagers, alongside FAFG's mapping, allows us to model how rural mass graves blend into the terrain — a problem mirrored in other agrarian conflict zones.
1960
Civil war begins
A failed military coup triggers armed insurgency. Leftist guerrilla movements — the FAR, EGP, ORPA, and PGT — form in response to U.S.-backed military rule, launching a 36-year conflict that will kill over 200,000 people.
1981–1983
Scorched-earth campaigns — Operation Ashes
Under generals Romeo Lucas García and Efraín Ríos Montt, the military launches Operation Ashes and similar campaigns targeting Maya communities in the Ixil Triangle, Verapaces, and the altiplano. At least 626 villages are destroyed. Massacres produce dozens of communal graves across the highlands.
1982
Las Dos Erres massacre
Kaibil special forces kill over 200 villagers in the Petén jungle settlement of Las Dos Erres. Bodies are thrown into the village well. The site is excavated decades later; remains of children are found among the dead.
1994
FAFG established
The Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation is created to excavate clandestine graves and return remains to families. It becomes the primary institution for forensic accountability in Guatemala, eventually excavating over 1,000 graves.
1996
Peace Accords signed
The Guatemalan government and URNG guerrilla coalition sign the Agreement on a Firm and Lasting Peace in December 1996, ending 36 years of armed conflict. A Historical Clarification Commission (CEH) is established to investigate atrocities.
1999
CEH report — genocide finding
The UN-backed truth commission releases Guatemala: Memory of Silence. It documents over 42,000 identified victims, attributes 93% of violations to state forces, and concludes that acts of genocide were committed against Maya communities. Families of the disappeared begin demanding exhumations.
2013
Ríos Montt convicted of genocide — then overturned
Former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt is convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity — the first head of state convicted of genocide in a national court. The verdict is overturned on procedural grounds ten days later. He dies in 2018 before a retrial concludes.
Ongoing
Khthon monitoring — agrarian grave concealment
Khthon integrates FAFG mapping data with multi-temporal satellite imagery to track grave sites in active agricultural zones. Plowing, erosion, and crop cycles erase surface signatures. Time-series analysis and survivor HUMINT allow us to model landscape change above burial sites — a methodology with wide applicability.
Browse Khthon's full catalogue of country and case reports across seven global regions, or get involved with our ongoing investigations.
