In the ten years after the fall of Zaculeu, various Spanish expeditions crossed into the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes and engaged in the gradual and complex conquest of the Chuj and Q'anjob'al peoples.

By the time the Spanish arrived in the region, the Mayans had already suffered high mortality from the Old World infectious diseases brought by colonists and spread by traders.

[9] As the Spanish army marched east toward Uspantán; Arias received notice that the acting governor of Guatemala, Francisco de Orduña, had deposed him as magistrate.

The Spanish continued east towards Uspantán, where they found it defended by ten thousand warriors, including forces from Cotzal, Cunén, Sacapulas and Verapaz.

In 1982, in the remote Guatemalan highlands, where the military classified those most isolated as being more accessible to the guerrillas, it identified many villages and communities as "red" and targeted them for annihilation.

This was especially true in Quiche Department, where the army had a well-documented belief from the Benedicto Lucas period that the entire indigenous population of the Ixil area was pro-EGP.

[13] A major part of Rios Montt's pacification strategy in El Quiche was "Operation Sofia," which began on July 8, 1982 on orders from Army Chief of Staff Héctor Mario López Fuentes.

"Operation Sofia" was planned and executed by the 1st Battalion of the Guatemalan Airborne Troops with the mission to "exterminate the subversive elements in the area - Quiché.

In April 1982 alone (General Efraín Ríos Montt's first full month in office), the military committed 3,330 documented killings, a rate of approximately 111 per day.