They saw parallels between Guatemala and Vietnam, in that both countries were largely agrarian, and they both saw a struggle between capitalism and communism, and both saw heavy intervention from the U.S. to protect its economic interests.

[6] The organization considered indigenous militants to be important revolutionary allies, and was influenced by the Maoist concept of the protracted people's war, aspiring to launch its own version of it.

The organization dedicated itself to building popular support among poor peasants, Catholics and the Maya people for years before committing its first action.

The EGP stressed the importance of the "Indian question" and wanted to create a multiethnic socialist Guatemala, wishing to integrate the concerns regarding ethnic oppression of the indigenous population with class struggle.

On June 10, 1975, army paratroopers and ground forces entered the area, arresting numerous individuals and establishing a military presence at a nearby agrarian transformation facility.

At its height, the EGP had the support of 250,000-500,000, while the army estimated the number at 360,000 across the regions of Quiché, Chimaltenango, Huehuetenango, and Verapaces, in the Guatemalan highlands.

A number of countries, including Spain, broke diplomatic relations with Guatemala following this incident, damaging the legitimacy of the government, and giving the EGP a chance to intensify its military activities.

A declassified CIA document from late February 1982 states that in mid-February 1982 the Guatemalan army had reinforced its existing forces and launched a "sweep operation in the Ixil Triangle.

[13] Civilian patrols formed by the army perpetrated further human rights abuses, such that when Guerrillas were offered an amnesty by the government in 1983, the EGP asked its local supporters to accept it.

The ability of the army to suppress the local support of the EGP has been attributed to military aid given to it by Israel and Argentina, as well as by the U.S. government after Ronald Reagan became president in 1981.

During US President Jimmy Carter’s administration (1977 to 1981), the United States made human rights a primary focus and any nation receiving US aid had to adhere to their policy.

However numerous Latin American countries facing socialist insurgencies still received aid from the Carter administration despite their poor human rights record.

Latin America expert William LeoGrande summarized: “When Washington confronted the choice between assisting a righteous regime battling insurgency, or risking grill of victory, it could not, In the wake of the revolution in Nicaragua, bring itself to allow a guerrilla triumph.

The facade of reform, rather than its substance, became sufficient justification for US support.”[14] Following the election of Ronald Reagan in 1981, the Guatemalan military received increased and unrestricted support from the US to combat the insurgency including the EGP.

By 1984, the large-scale massacres were generally over, the army had set up new bases throughout the Mayan heartlands and had accrued unprecedented economic power through the seizure of vast tracts of productive land and a number of key state institutions.

The URNG started as a guerrilla movement and was founded on February 7, 1982 and became a legal political party in 1998 after the Peace Process which ended the Guatemalan Civil War.

At the end of 1996, the Government of President Alvaro Arzu Irigoyen, together with the URNG, with the participation of the United Nations as moderator and with the support of the international community, concluded a long negotiating process, by signing the Peace Accords.

During the elections in 2011, the party entered into a political alliance with Winaq, MNR, the URNG splinter ANN and may other civil society groups to form the Broad Front of the Left.