This paper examines how truth commissions (the Catholic Church ‘project of Recuperation of historical memory –REMHI, and the UN sponsored commission for historical clarification -CEH) have impacted and shaped contemporary war narratives in Guatemala, centring analysis on the representations of violent political engagement in the reports of the commissions. The research incorporates textual analysis as well as interviews and the analysis of REMHI testimonies. In concluding that the sate was responsible for having committed acts of genocide, the CEH enhanced the possibility of furthering the pursuit of justice and in doing so produced a powerful counter-war narrative to that of the state. Also running against the ''just war'' narratives of the guerrillas, the CEH and REMHI present instead accounts that centre on ill-defined notions of ''innocent victimhood''. Whilst seductively useful to counteract state legitimization of repression, the creation of differentiated and idealized categories of victims is nonetheless problematic, not least for the insurgents or their allies who were subjected to torture and/or sexual violence. The binary approach between ''innocent victims'' and armed actors obfuscate rather than illuminate the complexities of political positioning, mass mobilisation and the dynamics of shifting alliances, which took place during and after the war. The key consideration then becomes whether the pragmatic counter-narratives of the truth commission by emphasising and reifying ''innocence'' and ''neutrality'' did not implicitly contribute to the stigmatisation of political engagement and participation, precisely at a time when a bereft post conflict political system needed urgent revitalisation.
