The genocide in Cambodia took place between 1975 and 1979. The Khmer Rouge led
by Pol Pot entered the capital Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975, establishing a
communist regime and implementing the extermination that caused more than
1.500.000 deaths.
Driven by the desire to cleanse their country of the "enemies of the people", young
peasants materially carried out the massacres. The "enemies of the people" were
politicians, administrators of the previous regime, intellectuals, teachers, and all those who, in one way or another, were engaged in non-manual work. A criminal
indoctrination plan by an elite of Stalinist-trained political leaders drove these actions.