In nearly all cases, massacres were either anticipated or followed by the destruction of houses, religious sites, public buildings, and land. Deforestation and the burning of crops effectively made vast areas of the remote countryside uninhabitable, triggering massive population displacement.

According to the CEH, during the thirty-six years of conflict, between 0.5–1.5 million people were displaced across Guatemala as a direct result of political repression, particularly in the early ’80s in the departments of Huehuetenango, Quiché, and Alta Verapaz, as a result of the scorched earth offensives (2951).