Guatemala · State-Based Conflict Deaths (UCDP, annual)

## What this measures

Deaths in state-based armed conflict in Guatemala each year: fighting over government or territory in which at least one side is the government of a state. UCDP's best estimate, by the country where the fighting happened. Fighting between non-state groups (for example, rival gangs or militias) and one-sided violence against civilians are left out; the organized-violence series for Guatemala counts all three.

## Why it matters

UCDP's own thresholds are set on this count: 25 or more deaths in a year make an active armed conflict, and 1,000 or more a war. A state at war carries risk to people, operations, supply chains, sanctions and the currency that crime-driven violence does not.

## How to read it

Deaths per year; zero means no state-based event UCDP could code. 25 or more is an active conflict; 1,000 or more is a war. Compare a year with the country's own record and with the organized-violence total: a large gap between them means most of the violence is not state-based.

## What it does not say

It counts deaths UCDP can attribute to an event with a known actor; deaths from disease or hunger caused by war are not included, and coverage depends on news and NGO reporting, so the true toll is often higher. A country's troops fighting abroad are counted where the fighting happens, not at home. The latest year arrives when UCDP publishes its annual release (June).

## Source

Uppsala Conflict Data Program, Georeferenced Event Dataset (GED) 26.1, state-based events, summed by Palanor by country and year. CC BY 4.0. Cite: Sundberg and Melander (2013), Journal of Peace Research 50(4). https://ucdp.uu.se