A Tale of Two Genocides: Scorched Earth Operations as Genocidal Practices in El Salvador and Guatemala

September 22, 2016 at 12:00 PM Pacific Time

A public lecture by Paula Cuellar Cuellar (PhD student in History, University of Minnesota)
2016-2017 Center Graduate Research Fellow

Organized by the USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research

During the last two decades of the twentieth century, Guatemala and El Salvador experienced two of the bloodiest armed conflicts in Latin America. In this lecture, Paula Cuellar Cuellar will discuss her dissertation research on scorched earth operations in both countries. She investigates and analyzes whether scorched earth operations constitute genocidal practices, independently of the group categories protected by the legal definition of genocide. In her lecture, Cuellar will discuss the contribution of the Guatemalan testimonies from the USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive (VHA) to her research and how they compare with oral histories she has collected in El Salvador.

Paula Cuellar Cuellar is the 2016-2017 USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research Center Graduate Research Fellow. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in History with a minor in Human Rights at the University of Minnesota. She holds an LL.B. Degree from the Central American University José Simeón Cañas and a Master’s Degree in Human Rights and Education for Peace from the University of El Salvador. She also holds an LL.M. degree in International Human Rights Law from Notre Dame and a Post Graduate Diploma in Human Rights and Democratization Processes from the University of Chile.