Mano Blanca

Movement of Organized Nationalist Action
Movimiento de Acción Nacionalista Organizado MANO
Movimiento de Liberación Nacional Flag
Leaders	Raúl Lorenzana
Dates of operation	1966–1978
Active regions	Guatemala
Ideology	Anti-communism
Part of	Guatemala Armed Forces (non-sanctioned) National Liberation Movement
Allies	Guatemala Armed Forces
Opponents	Guatemalan Party of Labor
Battles and wars	Guatemalan Civil War

Mano Blanca (Spanish for 'White Hand'), was a Guatemalan right-wing, anti-communist death squad,^[1] set up in 1966 to prevent Julio César Méndez Montenegro from being inaugurated as the president of Guatemala. While initially autonomous from the government, it was absorbed into the Guatemalan State's counter-terror apparatus and evolved into a paramilitary unit of the Guatemalan armed forces, and was responsible for the murder and torture of thousands of people in rural Guatemala.^[2] The group received support from the Guatemalan army and government, as well as from the United States. The group was officially known as the Movimiento de Acción Nacionalista Organizado (English: Movement of Organized Nationalist Action) which gives the acronym "MANO", (Spanish: hand). The group was variously known by its full name, by MANO, or most popularly by Mano Blanca, or "White Hand."