The Kingdom of Guatemala during the Reign of Charles III, 1759–1788.
Rural Guatemala, 1760–1940.
In the 18th century, Belize became the main smuggling center for Central America, even though the British accepted Spain's sovereignty over the region via treaties signed in 1783 and 1786, in exchange for a ceasefire and the authorization for British subjects to work in the forests of Belize. After 1821, Belize became the leading edge of Britain's commercial entrance in the isthmus.
In the 18th century, Belize became the main smuggling center for Central America, even though the British accepted Spain's sovereignty over the region via treaties signed in 1783 and 1786, in exchange for a ceasefire and the authorization for British subjects to work in the forests of Belize. After 1821, Belize became the leading edge of Britain's commercial entrance in the isthmus.
Class Privileges and Economic Development: The Consulado de Comericio in Guatemala, 1793–1871.
The colony became independent in 1821 and then became a part of the First Mexican Empire until 1823.
In the 18th century, Belize became the main smuggling center for Central America, even though the British accepted Spain's sovereignty over the region via treaties signed in 1783 and 1786, in exchange for a ceasefire and the authorization for British subjects to work in the forests of Belize. After 1821, Belize became the leading edge of Britain's commercial entrance in the isthmus.
Rafael Carrera and the emergence of the Republic of Guatemala, 1821–1871.
The colony became independent in 1821 and then became a part of the First Mexican Empire until 1823.
After an unsuccessful attempt to take the Quetzaltenango, Carrera was surrounded and wounded, and he had to capitulate to the Mexican General Agustin Guzman, who had been in Quetzaltenango since the time of Vicente Filísola's arrival in 1823.
From 1824 it was a part of the Federal Republic of Central America.
Aycinena remained in the legislature and was the advisor of the Governors of Guatemala in the next few years. In October 1826, Central American Federation president Manuel José de Arce y Fagoaga dissolved the Legislature and tried to establish a Unitarian System for the region, switching from the Liberal to the Conservative party, that Aycinena led.
Mariano Aycinena y Piñol -leader of the Ayicena family and the conservative power- was appointed as Governor of Guatemala on 1 March 1827 by president Manuel José Arce; Aycinena regime was a dictatorship: he censored free press and any book with liberal ideology was forbidden.
He reinstated mandatory tithing for the secular clergy of the Catholic Church === Invasion of General Morazán in 1829 === Morazán and his liberal forces were fighting around San Miguel, in El Salvador beating any conservative federal forces sent by Guatemalan general Manuel Arzú from San Salvador.
Military operations continued, with great success for the allies. To prepare for the siege from Morazán troops, on 18 March 1829, Aycinena decreed Martial Law, but he was completely defeated.
On 12 April 1829, Aycinena conceded defeat and he and Morazán signed an armistice pact; then, he was sent to prison, along with his Cabinet members and the Aycinena family was secluded in their Mansion.
After the expulsion of the conservative leader of the Aycinena family and the regular clergy in 1829, Gálvez was appointed by Francisco Morazán as Governor of Guatemala in 1831.
Morazán, however, annulled the pact on 20 April, since his real objective was to take power away from the conservatives and the regular clergy of the Catholic Church in Guatemala, whom the Central American leaders despised since they had had the commerce and power monopoly during the Spanish Colony. === Liberal rule === A member of the liberal party, Mariano Gálvez was appointed the chief of state in 1831.
After the expulsion of the conservative leader of the Aycinena family and the regular clergy in 1829, Gálvez was appointed by Francisco Morazán as Governor of Guatemala in 1831.
After discovering the value of the plant, the wealthier Yucateco criollos started plantations, beginning in 1833, to cultivate it on a large scale; not long after the henequen boom, a boom in sugar production led to more wealth.
Empires in the Wilderness: Foreign Colonization and Development in Guatemala, 1834–1844.
In February 1835 Gálvez was re-elected for a second term, during which the Asiatic cholera afflicted the country.
Peasant revolts began in 1837 and under chants of "Hurray for the true religion!" and "Down with the heretics!" started growing and spreading.
Gálvez remained in the city after he lost power. === Rise of Rafael Carrera === In 1838, the liberal forces of the Honduran leader Francisco Morazán and Guatemalan José Francisco Barrundia invaded Guatemala and reached San Sur, where they executed Pascual Alvarez, Carrera's father-in-law.
With Salazar gone, Carrera reinstated Rivera Paz as Head of State of Guatemala. === Invasion and Absorption of Los Altos === On 2 April 1838, in the city of Quetzaltenango, a secessionist group founded the independent State of Los Altos which sought independence from Guatemala.
In 1838, with the fall of the liberal President Mariano Galvez, the figure of Lieutenant General Rafael Carrera arose and became the country's conservative leader.
Taking advantage of Salazar's good faith and Ferrera's weapons, Carrera took Guatemala City by surprise on 13 April 1839; Castro Salazar, Mariano Gálvez and Barrundia fled before the arrival of Carrera's militiamen.
Finally, Guzmán, and the head of state of Los Altos, Marcelo Molina, were sent to the capital of Guatemala, where they were displayed as trophies of war during a triumphant parade on 17 February 1840; in the case of Guzman, shackled, still with bleeding wounds, and riding a mule. On 18 March 1840, liberal caudillo Morazán invaded Guatemala with 1500 soldiers to avenge the insult done in Los Altos.
On 2 April 1840, after entering the city, Carrera told the citizens that he had already warned them after he defeated them earlier that year.
Carrera then forcibly annexed Quetzaltenango and much of Los Altos back into conservative Guatemala. After the violent and bloody reinstatement of the State of Los Altos by Carrera in April 1840, Luis Batres Juarros – conservative member of the Aycinena Clan, then secretary general of the Guatemalan government of recently reinstated Mariano Rivera Paz – obtained from the vicar Larrazabal authorization to dismantle the regionalist Church.
British commercial brokers established themselves and began prosperous commercial routes plying the Caribbean harbors of Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. When Carrera came to power in 1840 he stopped the complaints over Belize and established a Guatemalan consulate in the region to oversee Guatemalan interests.
When the Republic dissolved in 1841, Guatemala became fully independent. In the late 19th and early 20th century, Guatemala's potential for agricultural exploitation attracted several foreign companies, most prominently the United Fruit Company (UFC).
Even though the colony eventually crumbled, Belgium continued to support Carrera in the mid-19th century, although Britain continued to be the main business and political partner to Carrera. Rafael Carrera was elected Guatemalan Governor in 1844.
During the first presidency from 1844 to 1848, he brought the country back from excessive conservatism to a moderate regime, and – with the advice of Juan José de Aycinena y Piñol and Pedro de Aycinena – restored relations with the Church in Rome with a Concordat ratified in 1854.
On 21 March 1847, Guatemala declared itself an independent republic and Carrera became its first president. During the first term as president, Carrera had brought the country back from extreme conservatism to a traditional moderation; in 1848, the liberals were able to drive him from office, after the country had been in turmoil for several months.
In his letter of 1849, Cecilio Chi noted that Santiago Mendez had come to "put every Indian, big and little, to death" but that the Maya had responded to some degree, in kind, writing "it has pleased God and good fortune that a much greater portion of them [whites] than of the Indians died. Cecilio Chi, the native leader of Tepich, along with Jacinto Pat attacked Tepich on 30 July 1847, in reaction to the indiscriminate massacre of Mayas, ordered that all the non-Maya population be killed.
With this state of affairs, the Central American Federation could not be carried out because it was liberal in nature and Guatemala's military power and that of its leader Carrera were invincible in his time; so much so, that Carrera eventually founded the Republic of Guatemala on 21 March 1847.
On 21 March 1847, Guatemala declared itself an independent republic and Carrera became its first president. During the first term as president, Carrera had brought the country back from extreme conservatism to a traditional moderation; in 1848, the liberals were able to drive him from office, after the country had been in turmoil for several months.
They declared on 26 August 1848 that Los Altos was an independent state once again.
On 5 September 1848, the criollos altenses chose a formal government led by Fernando Antonio Martínez. In the meantime, Carrera decided to return to Guatemala and did so entering by Huehuetenango, where he met with the native leaders and told them that they must remain united to prevail; the leaders agreed and slowly the segregated native communities started developing a new Indian identity under Carrera's leadership.
During the first presidency from 1844 to 1848, he brought the country back from excessive conservatism to a moderate regime, and – with the advice of Juan José de Aycinena y Piñol and Pedro de Aycinena – restored relations with the Church in Rome with a Concordat ratified in 1854.
By spring of 1848, the Maya forces had taken over most of the Yucatán, with the exception of the walled cities of Campeche and Mérida and the south-west coast, with Yucatecan troops holding the road from Mérida to the port of Sisal.
Yucatán was officially reunited with Mexico on 17 August 1848.
In his letter of 1849, Cecilio Chi noted that Santiago Mendez had come to "put every Indian, big and little, to death" but that the Maya had responded to some degree, in kind, writing "it has pleased God and good fortune that a much greater portion of them [whites] than of the Indians died. Cecilio Chi, the native leader of Tepich, along with Jacinto Pat attacked Tepich on 30 July 1847, in reaction to the indiscriminate massacre of Mayas, ordered that all the non-Maya population be killed.
Yucateco forces rallied, aided by fresh guns, money, and troops from Mexico, and pushed back the natives from more than half of the state. By 1850 the natives occupied two distinct regions in the southeast and they were inspired to continue the struggle by the apparition of the "Talking Cross".
By late 1850, Vasconcelos was getting impatient at the slow progress of the war with Guatemala and decided to plan an open attack.
When the Caste War of Yucatán began in the Yucatán Peninsula the Belize and Guatemala representatives were on high alert; Yucatán refugees fled into both Guatemala and Belize and Belize's superintendent came to fear that Carrera–given his strong alliance with Guatemalan natives–could support the native uprisings. In the 1850s, the British employed goodwill to settle the territorial differences with Central American countries.
American consul Beverly Clarke objected with some liberal representatives, but the issue was settled. As of 1850, it was estimated that Guatemala had a population of 600,000. Guatemala's "Liberal Revolution" came in 1871 under the leadership of Justo Rufino Barrios, who worked to modernize the country, improve trade and introduce new crops and manufacturing.
The coalition army was stationed in Metapán, El Salvador, due to its proximity with both the Guatemalan and Honduran borders. On 28 January 1851, Vasconcelos sent a letter to the Guatemalan Ministry of Foreign Relations, in which he demanded that the Guatemalan president relinquish power, so that the alliance could designate a new head of state loyal to the liberals and that Carrera be exiled, escorted to any of the Guatemalan southern ports by a Salvadorean regiment.
Guatemala was able to recruit 2,000 men, led by Lieutenant General Carrera as Commander in Chief, with several colonels. Carrera's strategy was to feign a retreat, forcing the enemy forces to follow the "retreating" troops to a place he had previously chosen; on 1 February 1851, both armies were facing each other with only the San José river between them.
Carrera regrouped his army and crossed the Salvadorean border, occupying Santa Ana, before he received orders from the Guatemalan President, Mariano Paredes, to return to Guatemala, since the Allies were requesting a cease-fire and a peace treaty. ==== Concordat of 1854 ==== The Concordat of 1854 was an international treaty between Carrera and the Holy See, signed in 1852 and ratified by both parties in 1854.
During the first presidency from 1844 to 1848, he brought the country back from excessive conservatism to a moderate regime, and – with the advice of Juan José de Aycinena y Piñol and Pedro de Aycinena – restored relations with the Church in Rome with a Concordat ratified in 1854.
Carrera regrouped his army and crossed the Salvadorean border, occupying Santa Ana, before he received orders from the Guatemalan President, Mariano Paredes, to return to Guatemala, since the Allies were requesting a cease-fire and a peace treaty. ==== Concordat of 1854 ==== The Concordat of 1854 was an international treaty between Carrera and the Holy See, signed in 1852 and ratified by both parties in 1854.
It was in force until the fall of the conservative government of Field Marshal Vicente Cerna y Cerna. In 1854, by initiative of Manuel Francisco Pavón Aycinena, Carrera was declared "supreme and perpetual leader of the nation" for life, with the power to choose his successor.
The followers of the Cross were known as the "Cruzob". The government of Yucatán first declared the war over in 1855, but hopes for peace were premature.
Belize commerce boomed in the region until 1855, when the Colombians built a transoceanic railway that allowed commerce to flow more efficiently between the oceans.
In 1859, Walker again threatened Central America; in order to get the weapons needed to face the filibuster, Carrera's regime had to come to terms about Belize with the British.
On 30 April 1859, the Wyke-Aycinena treaty was signed, between the British and Guatemalan representatives.
Carrera ratified the treaty on 1 May 1859, while Charles Lennox Wyke, British consul in Guatemala, traveled to Great Britain and got royal approval on 26 September 1859.
Guatemala simply inherited that argument to claim the territory, even though it never sent an expedition to the area after independence from Spain, due to the ensuing Central American civil war that lasted until 1860. The British had had a small settlement there since the middle of the 17th century, mainly as buccaneers' quarters and then for wood production.
His rivalry with Gerardo Barrios, President of El Salvador, resulted in open war in 1863. At Coatepeque the Guatemalans suffered a severe defeat, which was followed by a truce.
He was in that position until he died on 14 April 1865.
After Carrera's death in 1865, Guatemalan Liberals saw their chance to seize power again, and conducted the Liberal Revolution in 1871.
However, the road was never built; first because Guatemalans and Belizeans could not agree on the exact location for the road, and later because the conservatives lost power in Guatemala in 1871, and the liberal government declared the treaty void. Among those who signed the treaty was José Milla y Vidaurre, who worked with Aycinena in the Foreign Ministry at the time.
American consul Beverly Clarke objected with some liberal representatives, but the issue was settled. As of 1850, it was estimated that Guatemala had a population of 600,000. Guatemala's "Liberal Revolution" came in 1871 under the leadership of Justo Rufino Barrios, who worked to modernize the country, improve trade and introduce new crops and manufacturing.
As a matter of fact, after the elections he had to run away from his farm in Salama after being accused of sedition; he was captured and executed near Zacapa. |- !style="background:lemonchiffon;"|José Carranza Llerena |Conservative|| None||Medical Staff of President Barillas. |} Barillas Bercian was unique among liberal presidents of Guatemala between 1871 and 1944: he handed over power to his successor peacefully.
After Carrera's death in 1865, Guatemalan Liberals saw their chance to seize power again, and conducted the Liberal Revolution in 1871.
After the crash of the New York Stock Exchange in 1929, the peasant system established by Barrios in 1875 to jump start coffee production in the country was not good enough anymore, and Ubico was forced to implement a system of debt slavery and forced labor to make sure that there was enough labor available for the coffee plantations and that the UFCO workers were readily available. Allegedly, he passed laws allowing landowners to execute workers as a "disciplinary" measure.
Without this document, any day laborer was at the mercy of the local authorities and the landlords. In 1879, a constitution was ratified for Guatemala (the Republic's first as an independent nation, as the old Conservador regime had ruled by decree).
In 1880, Barrios was reelected President for a six-year term.
Barrios had ambitions of reuniting Central America and took the country to war in an unsuccessful attempt to attain it, losing his life on the battlefield in 1885 to forces in El Salvador. === Justo Rufino Barrios government === The Conservative government in Honduras gave military backing to a group of Guatemalan Conservatives wishing to take back the government, so Barrios declared war on the Honduran government.
Reyna Barrios went on to become president on 15 March 1892. == 20th century == In the 1890s, the United States began to implement the Monroe Doctrine, pushing out European colonial powers and establishing U.S.
Since then, the place was called "Colón Theater". In 1892, Barillas called for elections as he wanted to take care of his personal business; it was the first election in Guatemala that allowed the candidates to make propaganda in the local newspapers.
Reyna Barrios went on to become president on 15 March 1892. == 20th century == In the 1890s, the United States began to implement the Monroe Doctrine, pushing out European colonial powers and establishing U.S.
They: withdrew from the Mosquito Coast in Nicaragua and began talks that would end by restoring the territory to Nicaragua in 1894: returned the Bay Islands to Honduras and negotiated with the American filibuster William Walker in an effort to prevent him from conducting an invasion of Honduras.
corporations from paying taxes, especially the United Fruit Company, privatized and sold off publicly owned utilities, and gave away huge swaths of public land. === Manuel Estrada Cabrera regime (1898–1920) === After the assassination of general José María Reina Barrios on 8 February 1898, the Guatemalan cabinet called an emergency meeting to appoint a new successor, but declined to invite Estrada Cabrera to the meeting, even though he was the First Designated to the Presidency.
There are two versions on how he was able to get the Presidency: (a) Estrada Cabrera entered "with pistol drawn" to assert his entitlement to the presidency and (b) Estrada Cabrera showed up unarmed to the meeting and demanded to be given the presidency as he was the First Designated". The first Guatemalan head of state taken from civilian life in over 50 years, Estrada Cabrera overcame resistance to his regime by August 1898 and called for September elections, which he won handily.
Estrada Cabrera was almost unknown in the political circles of the capital and one could not foresee the features of his government or his intentions. In 1898, the Legislature convened for the election of President Estrada Cabrera, who triumphed thanks to the large number of soldiers and policemen who went to vote in civilian clothes and to the large number of illiterate family that they brought with them to the polls.
Doing Business with the Dictators: A Political History of United Fruit in Guatemala 1899–1944, Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources 1993 Garrard-Burnett, Virginia, Terror in the land of the Holy Spirit: Guatemala under General Efraín Ríos Montt, 1982–1983.
Cabrera signed a contract with UFCO's Minor Cooper Keith in 1904 that gave the company tax-exemptions, land grants, and control of all railroads on the Atlantic side. Estrada Cabrera often employed brutal methods to assert his authority, as that was the school of government in Guatemala at the time.
The forces "arrived in the night, firing indiscriminately into the workers' sleeping quarters, wounding and killing an unspecified number." In 1906, Estrada faced serious revolts against his rule; the rebels were supported by the governments of some of the other Central American nations, but Estrada succeeded in putting them down.
In 1907, the brothers Avila Echeverría and a group of friends decided to kill the president using a bomb along his way.
It has been suggested that the extreme despotic characteristics of Estrada did not emerge until after an attempt on his life in 1907. Estrada Cabrera continued in power until forced to resign by new revolts in 1920.
It has been suggested that the extreme despotic characteristics of Estrada did not emerge until after an attempt on his life in 1907. Estrada Cabrera continued in power until forced to resign by new revolts in 1920.
He was removed from office after the national assembly charged that he was mentally incompetent, and appointed Carlos Herrera in his place on 8 April 1920. In 1920, prince Wilhelm of Sweden visited Guatemala and made a very objective description of both Guatemalan society and Estrada Cabrera government in his book Between two continents, notes from a journey in Central America, 1920.
The prince explained the dynamics of the Guatemalan society at the time pointing out that even though it called itself a "Republic", Guatemala had three sharply defined classes: Criollos: a minority conformed originally by ancient families descendants of the Spaniards that conquered Central America and that by 1920 conformed both political parties in the country.
By 1920, they were mixed to a large extended with foreigners and the great majority had Indian blood in their veins.
The held almost no political power in 1920 and made the bulk of artisans, storekeepers, tradesmen and minor officials.
Guatemala's Catholic Revolution: A History of Religious and Social Reform, 1920-1968 (U of Notre Dame Press, 2018) Online review Historia General de Guatemala, 1999, several authors . Immerman, R.
Sebol, then regarded as a strategic point and route through Cancuén river, which communicated with Petén through the Usumacinta River on the border with Mexico and the only road that existed was a dirt one built by President Lázaro Chacón in 1928.
After the crash of the New York Stock Exchange in 1929, the peasant system established by Barrios in 1875 to jump start coffee production in the country was not good enough anymore, and Ubico was forced to implement a system of debt slavery and forced labor to make sure that there was enough labor available for the coffee plantations and that the UFCO workers were readily available. Allegedly, he passed laws allowing landowners to execute workers as a "disciplinary" measure.
A wealthy aristocrat (with an estimated income of $215,000 per year in 1930s dollars) and a staunch anti-communist, he consistently sided with the United Fruit Company, Guatemalan landowners and urban elites in disputes with peasants.
In 1944, the policies of Jorge Ubico led to a popular uprising that began the ten-year Guatemalan Revolution.
As a matter of fact, after the elections he had to run away from his farm in Salama after being accused of sedition; he was captured and executed near Zacapa. |- !style="background:lemonchiffon;"|José Carranza Llerena |Conservative|| None||Medical Staff of President Barillas. |} Barillas Bercian was unique among liberal presidents of Guatemala between 1871 and 1944: he handed over power to his successor peacefully.
On 1 July 1944 Ubico resigned from office amidst a general strike and nationwide protests.
On 19 October 1944 a small group of soldiers and students led by Árbenz and Arana attacked the National Palace in what later became known as the "October Revolution".
They declared that democratic elections would be held before the end of the year. The winner of the 1944 elections was a teaching major named Juan José Arévalo, PhD, who had earned a scholarship in Argentina during the government of general Lázaro Chacón due to his superb professor skills.
He went back to Guatemala after the 1944 Revolution and ran under a coalition of leftist parties known as the Partido Acción Revolucionaria ("Revolutionary Action Party", PAR), and won 85% of the vote in elections that are widely considered to have been fair and open. Arévalo implemented social reforms, including minimum wage laws, increased educational funding, near-universal suffrage (excluding illiterate women), and labor reforms.
Prior to 1951, communism lived within the urban labor forces in small study groups during 1944 to 1953 which it had a tremendous influence on these urban labor forces.
Despite most Guatemalans' attachment to the original ideals of the 1944 uprising, some private sector leaders and the military began to believe that Arbenz represented a communist threat and supported his overthrow, hoping that a successor government would continue the more moderate reforms started by Arevalo. Many groups of Guatemalan exiles were armed and trained by the CIA, and commanded by Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas they invaded Guatemala on 18 June 1954.
Villagrán Kramer was a man of recognized democratic trajectory, having participated in the Revolution of 1944, and was linked to the interests of transnational corporations and elites, as he was one of the main advisers of agricultural, industrial and financial chambers of Guatemala.
Crucifixion by Power: Essays on Guatemalan National Social Structure, 1944–1966.
Athens: Ohio University Press 1979. Gleijeses, Piero, Shattered Hope: The Guatemalan Revolution and the United States, 1944–1954.
In 1945, Arevalo's administration ordered new assessments, to be complete by 1948.
In 1945, Arevalo's administration ordered new assessments, to be complete by 1948.
UFCo said that the 1948 assessment was outdated, and claimed its land value was much greater.
In 1949, in Congress, the Communist Party only had less than forty members, however, by 1953 it went up to nearly four thousand.
Arévalo Bermejo, who all of a sudden had against him an army that was more faithful to Arana than to him, and elite civilian groups that used the occasion to protest strongly against his government. Before his death, Arana had planned to run in the upcoming 1950 presidential elections.
In 1950s Guatemala, only literate men were able to vote by secret ballot; illiterate men and literate women voted by open ballot.
Illiterate women were not enfranchised at all. For the campaign of 1950, Arbenz asked José Manuel Fortuny – a high-ranking member of the Guatemalan Communist party – to write some speeches.
They shared a comfortable victory in elections in late 1950 and, thereafter, the tasks of government.
According to historian Stephen Schlesinger, while Árbenz did have a few communists in lower-level positions in his administration, he "was not a dictator, he was not a crypto-communist." Nevertheless, some of his policies, particularly those involving agrarian reform, would be branded as "communist" by the upper classes of Guatemala and the United Fruit Company. ==== Land Reform ==== Prior to Árbenz's election in 1950, a handful of U.S.
The opposing political parties organized anticommunism campaigns; thousands of people appeared at the periodic rallies, and the membership in anticommunist organizations had grown steadily. ==== Arrival of John Peurifoy to Guatemala ==== Between 1950 and 1955, during the government of General Eisenhower in the United States, a witch hunt for communists was conducted: McCarthyism.
The government had investigated in 1951, but a new assessment was never completed.
Prior to 1951, communism lived within the urban labor forces in small study groups during 1944 to 1953 which it had a tremendous influence on these urban labor forces.
Before Arbenz come to power in 1951, the communist movement preferred to carry out many of their activities through the so-called mass organization.
In addition to Arbenz success, Guatemalan Communist Party moved forward its activities into public. After Jacobo Arbenz came to power in 1951, he extended political freedom, allowing communists in Guatemala to participate in politics.
Therefore, the fundamental characteristic of the Guatemalan production system has since that time been the accumulation of property in few hands, and a sort of "farm servitude" based on the exploitation of "farmer settlers". In 1951, the agrarian reform law that expropriated idle land from private hands was enacted, but in 1954, with the National Liberation Movement coup supported by the United States, most of the land that had been expropriated, was awarded back to its former landowners.
Árbenz continued Arévalo's reform agenda and in June 1952, his government enacted an agrarian reform program.
Árbenz set land reform as his central goal, as only 2% of the population owned 70% of the land. On 17 June 1952 Árbenz's administration enacted an agrarian reform law known as Decree 900.
Owners of expropriated land were compensated according to the worth of the land claimed in May 1952 tax assessments (which they had often dramatically understated to avoid paying taxes).
After the consecration of the Shrine of Esquipulas (1950), and as part of a smear campaign launched against the Arbenz government, he requested sculptor Julio Urruela Vásquez to carve a replica of the Christ of Esquipulas, which was transferred to bronze in 1952 and converted the following year in symbol and banner of the national pilgrimage against communism.
By 1952, Arbenz supported a land reform, and took unused agricultural land, about , from owners who had large properties, and made it available to rural workers and farmers.
Árbenz himself, a landowner through his wife, gave up of his own land in the land reform program. In 1953, the reform was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, however the democratically elected Congress later impeached four judges associated with the ruling. Decree 900, for the Agrarian Reform in Guatemala created the possibility of gaining crops for those field workers who had no land of their own.
This pastoral was distributed throughout the country. === National Liberation (1954) === ====Agrarian Reform and UFCo conflict==== In 1953, when the government implemented Agrarian Reform, it intended to redistribute large holdings of unused land to peasants, both Latino and Amerindian, for them to develop for subsistence farming.
He came from Greece, where he had already done considerable anticommunist activity, and was installed as ambassador in November 1953, when Carlos Castillo Armas was already organizing his tiny revolutionary army.
Prior to 1951, communism lived within the urban labor forces in small study groups during 1944 to 1953 which it had a tremendous influence on these urban labor forces.
In 1949, in Congress, the Communist Party only had less than forty members, however, by 1953 it went up to nearly four thousand.
The presidencies of Juan Jose Arévalo and Jacobo Árbenz saw sweeping social and economic reforms, including a significant increase in literacy and a successful agrarian reform program. The progressive policies of Arévalo and Árbenz led the United Fruit Company to lobby the United States government for their overthrow, and a US-engineered coup in 1954 ended the revolution and installed a military regime.
This Christ was then appointed as Commander in Chief of the forces of the National Liberation Movement during the invasion of June 1954. On 4 April 1954, Rossell Arellano issued a pastoral letter in which he criticized the progress of communism in the country, and made a call to Guatemalans to rise up and fight the common enemy of God and the homeland.
This led to a CIA-orchestrated coup in 1954, known as Operation PBSuccess, which saw Arbenz toppled and forced into exile by Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas.
Despite most Guatemalans' attachment to the original ideals of the 1944 uprising, some private sector leaders and the military began to believe that Arbenz represented a communist threat and supported his overthrow, hoping that a successor government would continue the more moderate reforms started by Arevalo. Many groups of Guatemalan exiles were armed and trained by the CIA, and commanded by Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas they invaded Guatemala on 18 June 1954.
In 1954, a military government replaced Arbenz' government and disbanded the legislature and they arrested communist leaders, Castillo Armas became president. After the CIA coup, hundreds of Guatemalans were rounded up and killed.
A variety of factors contributed: social and economic injustice and racial discrimination suffered by the indigenous population, the 1954 coup which reversed reforms, weak civilian control of the military, the United States support of the government, and Cuban support of the insurgents.
Therefore, the fundamental characteristic of the Guatemalan production system has since that time been the accumulation of property in few hands, and a sort of "farm servitude" based on the exploitation of "farmer settlers". In 1951, the agrarian reform law that expropriated idle land from private hands was enacted, but in 1954, with the National Liberation Movement coup supported by the United States, most of the land that had been expropriated, was awarded back to its former landowners.
FRENTE leaders were mostly members of the Patriotic Workers' Youth, the youth wing of the Guatemalan Labor Party (-Partido Guatemalteco del Trabajo- PGT), the Guatemalan communist party who had worked in the shadows since it was illegalized in 1954.
His widow, the American Jennifer Harbury, and members of the Guatemala Human Rights Commission, based in Washington, DC, raised protests that ultimately led the United States to declassify documents going back to 1954 related to its actions in Guatemala.
The opposing political parties organized anticommunism campaigns; thousands of people appeared at the periodic rallies, and the membership in anticommunist organizations had grown steadily. ==== Arrival of John Peurifoy to Guatemala ==== Between 1950 and 1955, during the government of General Eisenhower in the United States, a witch hunt for communists was conducted: McCarthyism.
Ithaca: Cornell University Press 1956. Lovell, W.
Ydígoras Fuentes, who took power in 1958 following the murder of Col.
In 1958, during the government of General Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) financed infrastructure projects in Sebol, which finally adopted the name "Fray Bartolomé de las Casas', municipality created in 1983 in Alta Verapaz.
This was followed by other military governments, and jolted off a civil war that lasted from 1960 to 1996.
Castillo Armas, a group of junior military officers revolted in 1960.
In 1960, then Army captain Fernando Romeo Lucas Garcia inherited Saquixquib and Punta de Boloncó farms in northeastern Sebol.
Colonization of the area was made through a process by which inhospitable areas of the FTN were granted to native peasants. In 1962, the DGAA became the National Institute of Agrarian Reform (INTA), by Decree 1551 which created the law of Agrarian Transformation.
In 1964, several communities settled for decades on the shore of Polochic River claimed property titles to INTA which was created in October 1962, but the land was awarded to Monzón.
In 1963 he bought the farm "San Fernando" El Palmar de Sejux and finally bought the "Sepur" farm near San Fernando.
In 1964, several communities settled for decades on the shore of Polochic River claimed property titles to INTA which was created in October 1962, but the land was awarded to Monzón.
He formed a three-member military junta that annulled the 1965 constitution, dissolved Congress, suspended political parties and canceled the electoral law.
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press 1965. Hernández Sandoval, Bonar L.
This group became the nucleus of the forces who mounted armed insurrection against the government for the next 36 years. Shortly after President Julio César Méndez Montenegro took office in 1966, the army launched a major counterinsurgency campaign that largely broke up the guerrilla movement in the countryside. The guerrillas concentrated their attacks in Guatemala City, where they assassinated many leading figures, including U.S.
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press 1966. Woodward, Ralph Lee.
The plant was finally completed under President Julio César Méndez Montenegro in 1968.
Ambassador John Gordon Mein in 1968.
When he returned, gathered the people and said that, by an INTA mistake, the land had gone to his name." Throughout the 1970s, Panzós farmers continued to claim INTA regularization of land ownership receiving legal advice from the FASGUA (Autonomous Trade Union Federation of Guatemala), an organization that supported the peasants' demands through legal procedures.
Austin: University of Texas Press 1970. Arias, Arturo.
Composed of local youths and university intellectuals, the ORPA developed out of a movement called the Regional de Occidente, which split from the FAR-PGT in 1971.
This coordination between legal groups came from the Guerrilla Army of the Poor (EGP), a guerrilla group that had appeared in 1972 and had its headquarters in the oil rich region of northern Quiché department -i.e., the Ixil Triangle of Ixcán, Nebaj and Chajul in Franja Transversal del Norte.
Despite the democratic façade, the electoral victory was not easy and the establishment had to impose Lucas García, causing further discredit the electoral system -which had already suffered a fraud when General Laugerud was imposed in the 1974 elections. In 1976, student group called "FRENTE" emerged in the University of San Carlos, which completely swept all student body positions that were up for election that year.
Ríos Montt had been the candidate of the Christian Democracy Party in the 1974 presidential election and was widely regarded as having been denied his own victory through fraud. Ríos Montt was by this time a lay pastor in the evangelical Protestant Church of the Word.
In 1975, the organization had spread around the area of the mountains of northern municipalities of Nebaj and Chajul.
For example, they selected two victims: Guillermo Monzón, who was a military Commissioner in Ixcán and José Luis Arenas, the largest landowner in the area of Ixcán, and who had been reported to the EGP for allegedly having land conflicts with neighboring settlements and abusing their workers. On Saturday, 7 June 1975, José Luis Arenas was killed by unknowns when he was in the premises of his farm "La Perla" to pay wage workers.
University of North Carolina 1975 Martínez Peláez, Severo.
Documents obtained by the National Security Archive revealed that the CIA was involved in planning assassinations of enemies of the new military government, should the coup be successful. ==Earthquake of 1976== ==Civil war (1960–1996)== The government, right-wing paramilitary organizations, and left-wing insurgents were all engaged in the Guatemalan Civil War (1960–96).
Despite the democratic façade, the electoral victory was not easy and the establishment had to impose Lucas García, causing further discredit the electoral system -which had already suffered a fraud when General Laugerud was imposed in the 1974 elections. In 1976, student group called "FRENTE" emerged in the University of San Carlos, which completely swept all student body positions that were up for election that year.
In 1977, Ramon, a guerrilla commander, regularly visited the village of La Llorona and after finding that the issue of land was causing many problems in the community, taught people to practice new measurements, which spread fear among landowners.
Another threat at that time for peasant proprietors were mining projects and exploration of oil: Exxon, Shenandoah, Hispanoil and Getty Oil all had exploration contracts; besides there was the need for territorial expansion of two mega-projects of that era: Northern Transversal Strip and Chixoy Hydroelectric Plant. In 1978, a military patrol was stationed a few kilometers from the county seat of Panzós, in a place known as "Quinich".
Unlike other Marxist organizations in Guatemala at the time, PGT leaders trusted the mass movement to gain power through elections. FRENTE used its power within the student associations to launch a political campaign for the 1978 university general elections, allied with leftist Faculty members grouped in "University Vanguard".
In 1978, the University of San Carlos became one of the sectors with more political weight in Guatemala; that year the student movement, faculty and University Governing Board -Consejo Superior Universitario- united against the government and were in favor of opening spaces for the neediest sectors.
For a few months, the state university was a united and progressive institution, preparing to confront the State head on. Now, FRENTE had to face the radical left, represented then by the Student Revolutionary Front "Robin García" (FERG), which emerged during the Labor Day march of 1 May 1978.
Its members were not interested in working within an institutional framework and never asked permission for their public demonstrations or actions. On 7 March 1978, Lucas Garcia was elected president; shortly after, on 29 May 1978 -in the late days of General Laugerud García government- in the central square of Panzós, Alta Verapaz, members of the Zacapa Military Zone attacked a peaceful peasant demonstration, killing a lot of people.
In 1978, for example, Osorio Paz and other university received death threats for their outspoken opposition to the construction of an inter-oceanic pipeline that would cross the country to facilitate oil exploration.
Most of the population began to participate in the schemes finding that them represented their only alternative to military repression. ===Lucas Garcia presidency=== The election of Lucas García on 7 March 1978 marked the beginning of a full return to the counterinsurgency practices of the Arana period.
The repression not only intensified, but became more overt. On 4 August 1978, high school and university students, along with other popular movement sectors, organized the mass movement's first urban protest of the Lucas García period.
In September 1978 a general strike broke out to protest sharp increases in public transportation fares; the government responded harshly, arresting dozens of protesters and injuring many more.
Fearful that this concession would encourage more protests, the military government, along with state-sponsored paramilitary death squads, generated an unsafe situation for public leaders. The administrator of a large cemetery in Guatemala City informed the press that in the first half of 1978, more than 760 unidentified bodies had arrived at the cemetery, all apparent victims of death squads.
The secret organization murdered several people, including victims who had no connection whatsoever with insurgent groups. In December 1978, the EGP group leader, Ramon, was captured by soldiers of the military detachment in El Estor and transferred to the military zone of Puerto Barrios; after two years returned to El Estor; but this time as an officer in the Army G2 and joined a group of soldiers that came to the village.
In 1979, the owners of the farm "La Perla" established links with the army and for the first time a military detachment was installed within the property; in this same building the first civil patrol of the area was established.
Between January and November 1979 alone the Guatemalan press reported 3,252 disappearances. ====Spanish Embassy fire==== On 31 January 1980, a group of displaced K'iche' and Ixil peasant farmers occupied the Spanish Embassy in Guatemala City to protest the kidnapping and murder of peasants in Uspantán by elements of the Guatemalan Army.
The daily number of killings by official and unofficial security forces increased from an average of 20 to 30 in 1979 to a conservative estimate of 30 to 40 daily in 1980.
In late 1979, the EGP expanded its influence, controlling a large amount of territory in the Ixil Triangle in El Quiche and holding many demonstrations in Nebaj, Chajul and Cotzal.
On 18 September 1979, the ORPA made its existence publicly known when it occupied the Mujulia coffee farm in the coffee-growing region of the Quezaltenango province to hold a political education meeting with the workers. Insurgent movements active in the initial phase of the conflict such as the FAR also began to reemerge and prepare for combat.
Athens: Ohio University Press 1979. Gleijeses, Piero, Shattered Hope: The Guatemalan Revolution and the United States, 1944–1954.
Amnesty International stated that disappearances were an "epidemic" in Guatemala and reported more than 2,000 killings between mid-1978 and 1980.
Between January and November 1979 alone the Guatemalan press reported 3,252 disappearances. ====Spanish Embassy fire==== On 31 January 1980, a group of displaced K'iche' and Ixil peasant farmers occupied the Spanish Embassy in Guatemala City to protest the kidnapping and murder of peasants in Uspantán by elements of the Guatemalan Army.
The daily number of killings by official and unofficial security forces increased from an average of 20 to 30 in 1979 to a conservative estimate of 30 to 40 daily in 1980.
Human rights sources estimated 5,000 Guatemalans were killed by the government for "political reasons" in 1980 alone, making it the worst human rights violator in the hemisphere after El Salvador.
This contention within the government caused Lucas Garcia's Vice President Francisco Villagrán Kramer to resign from his position on 1 September 1980.
In 1980, guerrilla operations on both the urban and rural fronts greatly intensified, with the insurgency carrying out a number of overt acts of armed propaganda and assassinations of prominent right-wing Guatemalans and landowners.
In 1980, armed insurgents assassinated prominent Ixil landowner Enrique Brol, and president of the CACIF (Coordinating Committee of Agricultural, Commercial, Industrial, and Financial Associations) Alberto Habie.
In October 1980, a tripartite alliance was formalized between the EGP, the FAR and the ORPA as a precondition for Cuban-backing. In early 1981, the insurgency mounted the largest offensive in the country's history.
It is also reported that in mid-1982, 32 members of "Star Guerilla Front " were shot for not raising the EGP flag. ==== Civil war in the city ==== On 31 January 1980, Guatemala got worldwide attention when the Spanish Embassy in Guatemala City was burnt down, resulting in 37 deaths, including embassy personnel and high ranked Guatemalan former government officials.
In the end, thirty seven people died after a fire started within the embassy after the police force tried to occupy the building; after that, Spain broke its diplomatic relationships with Guatemala. On 5 September 1980 a terrorist attack by Ejército Guerrillero de los Pobres (EGP) took place in front of the Guatemalan National Palace, then the headquarters of the Guatemalan government.
The intention was to prevent the Guatemalan people to support a huge demonstration that the government of general Lucas Garcia had prepared for Sunday 7 September 1980.
The army under Chief of Staff Benedicto Lucas García (the President's brother) began to search out communities in which to organize and recruit civilians into pro-government paramilitary patrols, who would combat the insurgents and kill their collaborators. In 1980, and 1981, the United States under Reagan administration delivered $10.5 million worth of Bell 212 and Bell 412 helicopters and $3.2 million worth of military trucks and jeeps to the Guatemalan Army.
In October 1980, a tripartite alliance was formalized between the EGP, the FAR and the ORPA as a precondition for Cuban-backing. In early 1981, the insurgency mounted the largest offensive in the country's history.
By 1981, an estimated 250,000 to 500,000 members of Guatemala's indigenous community actively supported the insurgency.
Since late 1981 the Army applied a strategy of "scorched earth" in Quiché, to eliminate the guerrilla social support EGP.
In 1981, the total population was about 130 people, all belonging to the q'eqchi' ethnic group.
On the evening of 28 September 1981, an army officer accompanied by four soldiers and a military commissioner met with about thirty civilians.
The insurgency subsequently found itself overwhelmed, and was unable to secure its advances and protect the indigenous civilian population from reprisals by the security forces. ===='Operation Ceniza'==== In response to the guerrilla offensive in early 1981, the Guatemalan Army began mobilizing for a large-scale rural counter-offensive.
The army under Chief of Staff Benedicto Lucas García (the President's brother) began to search out communities in which to organize and recruit civilians into pro-government paramilitary patrols, who would combat the insurgents and kill their collaborators. In 1980, and 1981, the United States under Reagan administration delivered $10.5 million worth of Bell 212 and Bell 412 helicopters and $3.2 million worth of military trucks and jeeps to the Guatemalan Army.
In 1981, the Reagan administration also approved a $2 million covert CIA program for Guatemala. On 15 April 1981, EGP rebels attacked a Guatemalan Army patrol from the village of Cocob near Nebaj, killing five personnel.
On 17 April 1981, a reinforced company of Airborne troops was deployed to the village.
"The soldiers were forced to fire at anything that moved." The army killed 65 civilians, including 34 children, five adolescents, 23 adults and two elderly people. In July 1981, the armed forces initiated a new phase of counterinsurgency operations under the code-name "Operación Ceniza," or "Operation Ashes," which lasted through March 1982.
Sources with the human rights office of the Catholic Church estimated the death toll from the counterinsurgency in 1981 at 11,000, with most of the victims indigenous peasants of the Guatemalan highlands.
Other sources and observers put the death toll due to government repression in 1981 at between 9,000 and 13,500. As army repression intensified in the countryside, relations between the Guatemalan military establishment and the Lucas Garcia regime worsened.
Almost all guerrilla massacres occurred in 1982 when further militarization reigned and there was widespread presence of PAC in communities; many of them were victims of non-cooperation with the guerrillas and in some cases they came after a previous attack by the PAC.
"The soldiers were forced to fire at anything that moved." The army killed 65 civilians, including 34 children, five adolescents, 23 adults and two elderly people. In July 1981, the armed forces initiated a new phase of counterinsurgency operations under the code-name "Operación Ceniza," or "Operation Ashes," which lasted through March 1982.
Additionally, Lucas went against the military's interests by endorsing his defense minister, Angel Anibal Guevara, as a candidate in the March 1982 presidential elections. The guerrilla organizations in 1982 combined to form the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG).
At the same time, extreme right-wing groups of self-appointed vigilantes, including the Secret Anti-Communist Army (ESA) and the White Hand (La Mano Blanca), tortured and murdered students, professionals, and peasants suspected of involvement in leftist activities. On 23 March 1982, army troops commanded by junior officers staged a coup d'état to prevent the assumption of power by General Ángel Aníbal Guevara, the hand-picked candidate of outgoing President and General Romeo Lucas García.
In May 1982, the Conference of Catholic Bishops accused Montt of responsibility for growing militarization of the country and for continuing military massacres of civilians.
An army officer was quoted in The New York Times of 18 July 1982 as telling an audience of indigenous Guatemalans in Cunén that: "If you are with us, we'll feed you; if not, we'll kill you." The Plan de Sánchez massacre occurred on the same day. The government began to form local civilian defense patrols (PACs).
Norman: University of Oklahoma Press 1982. Dosal, Paul J.
Doing Business with the Dictators: A Political History of United Fruit in Guatemala 1899–1944, Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources 1993 Garrard-Burnett, Virginia, Terror in the land of the Holy Spirit: Guatemala under General Efraín Ríos Montt, 1982–1983.
H., The CIA in Guatemala: The Foreign Policy of Intervention, University of Texas Press: Austin, 1982. Jonas, Susanne.
Buried secrets : truth and human rights in Guatemala, New York [u.a.] : Palgrave Macmillan, 2003 Schlesinger, Stephen and Stephen Kinzer,Bitter Fruit: The Untold Story of the American Coup in Guatemala, Garden City, NY : Doubleday, 1982 Wasserstrom, Robert.
In 1958, during the government of General Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) financed infrastructure projects in Sebol, which finally adopted the name "Fray Bartolomé de las Casas', municipality created in 1983 in Alta Verapaz.
The CEH estimates that government forces were responsible for 93% of the violations; ODHAG earlier estimated that government forces were responsible for 80%. On 8 August 1983, Montt was deposed by his Minister of Defense, General Óscar Humberto Mejía Víctores, who succeeded him as de facto president of Guatemala.
Montt survived to found a political party (the Guatemalan Republic Front) and to be elected President of Congress in 1995 and again in 2000. Awareness in the United States of the conflict in Guatemala, and its ethnic dimension, increased with the 1983 publication of the "testimonial" account I, Rigoberta Menchú, a memoir by a leading activist.
After the publication of Stoll's book, the Nobel Committee reiterated that it had awarded the Peace Prize based on Menchú's uncontested work promoting human rights and the peace process. General Mejía allowed a managed return to democracy in Guatemala, starting with a 1 July 1984 election for a Constituent Assembly to draft a democratic constitution.
On 30 May 1985, after nine months of debate, the Constituent Assembly finished drafting a new constitution, which took effect immediately.
In the face of this pressure, Serrano fled the country. On 5 June 1993, Congress, pursuant to the 1985 constitution, elected the Human Rights Ombudsman, Ramiro de León Carpio, to complete Serrano's presidential term.
During the next nearly two decades, Méndez Montenegro was the only civilian to head Guatemala until the inauguration of Vinicio Cerezo in 1986. === Franja Transversal del Norte === The first settler project in the FTN was in Sebol-Chinajá in Alta Verapaz.
Vinicio Cerezo, a civilian politician and the presidential candidate of the Christian Democracy Party, won the first election held under the new constitution with almost 70% of the vote, and took office on 14 January 1986. ===1986 to 1996: from constitution to peace accords=== Upon its inauguration in January 1986, President Cerezo's civilian government announced that its top priorities would be to end the political violence and establish the rule of law.
New York: Cambridge University Press 1986. ===Post-independence=== Adams, Richard N.
Reforms included new laws of [corpus] and amparo (court-ordered protection), the creation of a legislative human rights committee, and the establishment in 1987 of the Office of Human Rights Ombudsman.
Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press 1987. Van Oss, Adriaan C.
Dissatisfied military personnel made two coup attempts in May 1988 and May 1989, but the military leadership supported the constitutional order.
Dissatisfied military personnel made two coup attempts in May 1988 and May 1989, but the military leadership supported the constitutional order.
The government's inability to deal with many of the nation's social and health problems — such as infant mortality, illiteracy, deficient health and social services, and rising levels of violence — contributed to popular discontent. Presidential and congressional elections were held on 11 November 1990.
It was learned that the CIA had been funding the military, although Congress had prohibited such funding since 1990 because of the Army's human rights abuses.
Austin: University of Texas Press 1990. Carmack, Robert, ed.
After a runoff ballot, Jorge Antonio Serrano Elías was inaugurated on 14 January 1991, completing the first successful transition from one democratically elected civilian government to another.
Princeton University Press, 1991 Grandin, Greg.
Boulder: Westview Press 1991. Kinzer, Stephen.
Rigoberta Menchú was awarded the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize for her work in favor of broader social justice.
The Serrano government reversed the economic slide it inherited, reducing inflation and boosting real growth. In 1992, Efraín Bámaca, a notable guerrilla leader also known as Comandante Everardo, "disappeared." It was later found that Bámaca was tortured and killed that year by Guatemalan Army officers.
Congress forced the CIA to end its aid to the Guatemalan Army. On 25 May 1993, Serrano illegally dissolved Congress and the Supreme Court and tried to restrict civil freedoms, allegedly to fight corruption.
In the face of this pressure, Serrano fled the country. On 5 June 1993, Congress, pursuant to the 1985 constitution, elected the Human Rights Ombudsman, Ramiro de León Carpio, to complete Serrano's presidential term.
Lacking a political base but with strong popular support, he launched an ambitious anti-corruption campaign to "purify" Congress and the Supreme Court, demanding the resignations of all members of the two bodies. Despite considerable congressional resistance, presidential and popular pressure led to a November 1993 agreement brokered by the Catholic Church between the administration and Congress.
Doing Business with the Dictators: A Political History of United Fruit in Guatemala 1899–1944, Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources 1993 Garrard-Burnett, Virginia, Terror in the land of the Holy Spirit: Guatemala under General Efraín Ríos Montt, 1982–1983.
Norton & Company, 1993. Malmström, Vincent H.
This package of constitutional reforms was approved by popular referendum on 30 January 1994.
In August 1994, a new Congress was elected to complete the unexpired term.
The government and the URNG signed agreements on human rights (March 1994), resettlement of displaced persons (June 1994), historical clarification (June 1994), and indigenous rights (March 1995).
Stanford: Stanford University Press 1994. Menchú, Rigoberta.
Montt survived to found a political party (the Guatemalan Republic Front) and to be elected President of Congress in 1995 and again in 2000. Awareness in the United States of the conflict in Guatemala, and its ethnic dimension, increased with the 1983 publication of the "testimonial" account I, Rigoberta Menchú, a memoir by a leading activist.
The government and the URNG signed agreements on human rights (March 1994), resettlement of displaced persons (June 1994), historical clarification (June 1994), and indigenous rights (March 1995).
They also made significant progress on a socioeconomic and agrarian agreement. National elections for president, Congress, and municipal offices were held in November 1995.
This was followed by other military governments, and jolted off a civil war that lasted from 1960 to 1996.
Vinicio Cerezo, a civilian politician and the presidential candidate of the Christian Democracy Party, won the first election held under the new constitution with almost 70% of the vote, and took office on 14 January 1986. ===1986 to 1996: from constitution to peace accords=== Upon its inauguration in January 1986, President Cerezo's civilian government announced that its top priorities would be to end the political violence and establish the rule of law.
With almost 20 parties competing in the first round, the presidential election came down to a 7 January 1996 runoff in which PAN candidate Álvaro Arzú Irigoyen defeated Alfonso Portillo Cabrera of the FRG by just over 2% of the vote.
Under the Arzú administration, peace negotiations were concluded, and the government signed peace accords ending the 36-year internal conflict in December 1996.
Following the war's end in 1997, Guatemala re-established a representative democracy.
In 1998, a book by U.S.
The most notable human rights case of this period was the brutal slaying of Bishop Juan José Gerardi on 24 April 1998, two days after he had publicly presented a major Catholic Church-sponsored human rights report known as Nunca Mas, summarizing testimony about human rights abuses during the Civil War.
In 2001, three Army officers were convicted in civil court and sentenced to lengthy prison terms for his murder. Guatemala held presidential, legislative, and municipal elections on 7 November 1999, and a runoff presidential election on 26 December.
Guatemala's Catholic Revolution: A History of Religious and Social Reform, 1920-1968 (U of Notre Dame Press, 2018) Online review Historia General de Guatemala, 1999, several authors . Immerman, R.
Paste analyses of these early pieces of pottery in the Antigua Valley indicate they were made of clays from different environmental zones, suggesting people from the Pacific coast expanded into the Antigua Valley. Guatemala's Pre-Columbian era can be divided into the Preclassic period (from 2000 BC to 250 AD), the Classic period (250 to 900 AD) and the Postclassic period (900 to 1500 AD).
Montt survived to found a political party (the Guatemalan Republic Front) and to be elected President of Congress in 1995 and again in 2000. Awareness in the United States of the conflict in Guatemala, and its ethnic dimension, increased with the 1983 publication of the "testimonial" account I, Rigoberta Menchú, a memoir by a leading activist.
In 2001, three Army officers were convicted in civil court and sentenced to lengthy prison terms for his murder. Guatemala held presidential, legislative, and municipal elections on 7 November 1999, and a runoff presidential election on 26 December.
As a result, public support for the government sank to nearly record lows by early 2001.
Austin: University of Texas Press 2002. Komisaruk, Catherine.
They wanted Montt to run as a presidential candidate in the 2003 elections.
The FRG fed the demonstrators. On 9 November 2003, Óscar Berger, a former mayor of Guatemala city, won the presidential election with 39% of the vote.
Cáceres, Berkeley: Universidad de Extremadura, The Bancroft Library, 2003. Few, Martha.
Buried secrets : truth and human rights in Guatemala, New York [u.a.] : Palgrave Macmillan, 2003 Schlesinger, Stephen and Stephen Kinzer,Bitter Fruit: The Untold Story of the American Coup in Guatemala, Garden City, NY : Doubleday, 1982 Wasserstrom, Robert.
CICIG conducted the investigations leading to an arrest warrant against Erwin Sperisen, former Head of the National Civilian Police (Policia Nacional Civil – PNC) from 2004 to 2007.
The Last Colonial Massacre: Latin America in the Cold War, Chicago 2004 Green, Dee F., and Gareth W.
Allowed to run, Montt trailed a distant third with 11% of the vote. In early October 2005, Guatemala was devastated by Hurricane Stan.
Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press 2005. Meneray, Wilbur E.
Although a relatively weak storm, it triggered a flooding disaster, resulting in at least 1,500 people dead and thousands homeless. Determined to make progress against crime and internal police corruption, Óscar Berger in December 2006 came to agreement with the United Nations to gain support for judicial enforcement of its laws.
New York, 2006. Walter LaFeber, Inevitable Revolutions: The United States in Central America.
CICIG conducted the investigations leading to an arrest warrant against Erwin Sperisen, former Head of the National Civilian Police (Policia Nacional Civil – PNC) from 2004 to 2007.
Durham: Duke University Press 2009. Orellana, Sandra.
Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2010. Gibbings, Julie.
In addition, 17 other persons are covered by arrest warrants related to these crimes, including several former highly placed political figures of Guatemala. ===President Otto Pérez Molina government and "La Línea" case=== Retired general Otto Pérez Molina was elected president along with Roxana Baldetti, the first ever woman vice president in Guatemala; the began their term in office on 14 January 2012.
Stanford University Press 2013. Lanning, John Tate.
But on 16 April 2015, UN anti-corruption agency CICIG issued a report that implicated several high-profile politicians including Vice President Baldetti's private secretary, Juan Carlos Monzón and the director of the Guatemalan Internal Revenue Service.
Martinez was also President Perez Molina's son-in-law. But also political opposition leaders have been involved in CICIG investigations: several legislators and members of Libertad Democrática Renovada party (LIDER) were formally accused of bribery-related issues, prompting a large decline in the electorate trend for its presidential candidate, Manuel Baldizón, who before April was almost certain to become the next Guatemalan president in the 6 September 2015 presidential elections.
But it was a Friday press conference that brought up the crisis to its peak: on Friday 21 August 2015, CICIG and the Attorney General, Thelma Aldana, presented an investigation showing enough evidence to believe that both President Pérez Molina and former Vice President Baldetti were the actual leaders of "La Línea".
However, on 2 September 2015 Molina quit from office after Congress impeached him a day before, and on 3 September 2015 he was summoned to the Justice Department to face his first legal audience for the La Linea case. === Jimmy Morales and Alejandro Giammattei in power (2015-present) === In October 2015, presidential election, former TV comedian Jimmy Morales was elected as the new President of Guatemala after huge anti-corruption demonstrations.
Tucson: University of Arizona Press 2015. Few, Martha.
He took office in January 2016. In January 2017, President Morales announced that Guatemala will move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, becoming the first nation to follow the United States. In January 2020, Alejandro Giammattei replaced Jimmy Morales as the President of Guatemala.
“In the Shadow of Slavery: Historical Time, Labor, and Citizenship in Nineteenth-Century Alta Verapaz, Guatemala,” Hispnaic American Historical Review 96.1, (February 2016): 73–107. Grieb, Kenneth.
He took office in January 2016. In January 2017, President Morales announced that Guatemala will move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, becoming the first nation to follow the United States. In January 2020, Alejandro Giammattei replaced Jimmy Morales as the President of Guatemala.
Guatemala's Catholic Revolution: A History of Religious and Social Reform, 1920-1968 (U of Notre Dame Press, 2018) Online review Historia General de Guatemala, 1999, several authors . Immerman, R.
Giammattei had won the presidential election in August 2019 with his "tough-on-crime" agenda. ==See also== List of Presidents of Guatemala Politics of Guatemala Spanish colonization of the Americas Timeline of Guatemala City == Notes and references == === Notes === ===References=== === Bibliography === ==Further reading== Woodward, Ralph Lee (1992).
He took office in January 2016. In January 2017, President Morales announced that Guatemala will move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, becoming the first nation to follow the United States. In January 2020, Alejandro Giammattei replaced Jimmy Morales as the President of Guatemala.
All text is taken from Wikipedia. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License .
Page generated on 2021-08-05