Using an expanded definition of the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide this work analyzes the factors leading to Guatemala's military operations from 1978 until 1983 against Guatemala's indigenous population and gives details why these operations accounted for genocide. The main factors to explain the atrocities were the long lasting alienation of Guatemala's indigenous and non-indigenous population and the evolution of a "new," i.e. national indigenous identity previous to the conflict.