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Guatemalan Civil War
The Guatemalan Civil War was fought from 1960 to 1996 between the government of Guatemala and various Left-wing politics, leftist rebel groups. The Guatemalan government forces committed Guatemalan genocide, genocide against the Maya population of Guatemala during the civil war and there were widespread human rights violations against civilians. The context of the struggle was based on longstanding issues over land distribution. Wealthy Guatemalans, mainly of White Latin Americans#Guatemala, European descent, and foreign companies like the American United Fruit Company had control over much of the land leading to conflicts with the rural, disproportionately indigenous, peasants who worked the land. Democratic elections in 1944 and 1951 which were during the Guatemalan Revolution had brought popular leftist governments to power, who sought to ameliorate working conditions and implement land distribution. A 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état, United States-backed coup d'état in 1954 inst ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Central American Crisis
The Central American crisis began in the late 1970s, when major civil wars and communist revolutions erupted in various countries in Central America, causing it to become the world's most volatile region in terms of socioeconomic change. In particular, the United States feared that victories by communist forces would cause South America to become isolated from the United States if the governments of the Central American countries were overthrown and pro-Soviet Union, Soviet communist governments were installed in their place. During these civil wars, the United States pursued its interests by supporting right-wing governments against left-wing guerrillas. In the aftermath of the Second World War and continuing into the 1960s and 1970s, Latin America's economic landscape drastically changed. The United Kingdom and the United States both held political and economic interests in Latin America, whose economy developed based on external dependence. Rather than solely relying on agricultu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Reorganization Process
The National Reorganization Process ( PRN; often simply , "the Process") was the military dictatorship that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. In Argentina it is often known simply as the ("last military junta"), ("last military dictatorship") or ("last civil–military dictatorship"), because there have been several in the country's history and no others since it ended. The Argentine Armed Forces seized political power during the March 1976 coup against the presidency of Isabel Perón, the successor and widow of former President Juan Perón, at a time of growing economic and political instability. Congress was suspended, political parties were banned, civil rights were limited, and free market and deregulation policies were introduced. The President of Argentina and his ministers were appointed from military personnel while Peronists and leftists were persecuted. The junta launched the Dirty War, a campaign of state terrorism against opponents involving torture, extrajudi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio
Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio (July 17, 1918 – December 6, 2003) was a military officer and politician who served as the 35th president of Guatemala from 1970 to 1974. A member of the National Liberation Movement, his government enforced torture, disappearances, and killings against political and military adversaries, as well as common criminals. Arana was born in Barberena, in the department of Santa Rosa. A Colonel in the Army, he oversaw counterinsurgency efforts in Zacapa and Izabal, where thousands were killed by the military from 1966 to 1968. In July 1970, he became president following an electoral process generally considered "non-transparent" on a platform promising a crackdown on law-and-order issues and stability; his vice president was Eduardo Cáceres. In November 1970, Arana imposed a " State of Siege," followed by heightened counterinsurgency measures. His government committed severe human rights violations and used state terrorism in its war against the guerri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julio César Méndez Montenegro
Julio César Méndez Montenegro (November 23, 1915 – April 30, 1996) was a Guatemalan academic who served as the 34th president of Guatemala from July 1966 to July 1970. Mendez was elected on a platform promising democratic reforms and the curtailment of military power. The only civilian to occupy Guatemala's presidency during the long period of military rule between 1954 and 1986. Nevertheless, his election and swearing in was considered a major turning point for the long military-led Guatemala. He was the first cousin of César Montenegro Paniagua whose kidnapping, torture and murder during the Julio César Méndez presidency is rumored to have been undertaken with presidential sanction. Presidency (1966–1970) In 1966, the left-of-center Méndez defied odds after being elected and successfully sworn in as President of Guatemala. As a civilian who previously made a career as a law professor, Méndez's election, despite challenges, was also considered a historical transit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enrique Peralta Azurdia
Alfredo Enrique Peralta Azurdia (June 17, 1908 – February 18, 1997) was a Guatemalan military officer and politician who served as the Head of Government from March 1963 to July 1966. He took over the office of the presidency after staging a coup d'état against President Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes, under whom he served as Agriculture (1959–1960) and Defense minister (1961–1963). Peralta would later form the Institutional Democratic Party, a pro-military governing party modeled on the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which dominated Guatemalan politics until 1982. In the 1978 general election, he was the candidate of the National Liberation Movement but was defeated by Fernando Romeo Lucas García. Biography Early life and education Peralta was born on June 17, 1908, in Guatemala City. He studied at the and enlisted in the Guatemalan Army in 1926. Career Peralta served as a military attaché for the embassies of Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes
José Miguel Ramón Ydígoras Fuentes (17 October 1895 – 27 October 1982) was a Guatemalan military officer and politician who served as the 32nd president of Guatemala from 1958 to March 1963. He was also the main challenger to Jacobo Árbenz during the 1950 presidential election. Ydígoras previously served as the governor of the province of San Marcos. Early life and military career Ydígoras Fuentes was born on a coffee plantation, in Pueblo Nuevo in the Guatemalan department of Retalhuleu, on 17 October 1895. He retained a great fondness for coffee as an adult, claiming to drink 10 cups of it in a day, and describing it as a "patriotic vice", referring to Guatemala's high coffee production. He enrolled in Guatemala's military academy, and graduated at the top of his class. He was commissioned in the Guatemalan infantry in 1915. He was posted to the Guatemalan embassy in Washington, D.C., in 1918, and to the Paris embassy in 1919. In the same year he represented Guatem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ricardo Rosales (politician)
Ricardo Rosales Román (February 14, 1934 – January 2, 2020) was the head of the Guatemalan Party of Labour (PGT) beginning in 1974 through 1998. His nom de guerre was Carlos González. Rosales joined the leadership of the URNG in 1986. The PGT disbanded in 1998 after the conclusion of the country's civil war. Rosales was born in Guatemala City. He was elected to several leadership posts of student organizations while studying at the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala The Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (USAC, ''University of San Carlos of Guatemala'') is the largest and oldest university of Guatemala; it is also the fourth founded in the Americas. Established in the Kingdom of Guatemala during the Spa ... in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He joined the PGT in September 1963. He is a signatory of the Guatemalan Civil War#Renewed peace process .281994 to 1996., 1996 Peace Accords. He was elected as a member of the Congress of Guatemala on the URNG ticket fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rodrigo Asturias
Rodrigo Asturias Amado (30 October 1939 – June 15, 2005) was a Guatemalan guerrilla leader and politician. Biography Asturias was born in Guatemala City, the first-born son of Nobel Prize-winning author Miguel Ángel Asturias. He studied law in Chile and travelled extensively through the Southern Cone. He later taught at the University of Chile and the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Following the outbreak of the Civil War, he joined the Guatemalan Workers Party (Partido Guatemalteco de los Trabajadores or PGT) guerrilla group. During this time he was arrested, tried, and jailed, after which he spent seven years in exile in Mexico. He returned to Guatemala in 1971 and helped form the Revolutionary Organization of the People in Arms (Organización Revolucionaria del Pueblo en Armas, ORPA). He fought under the ''nom de guerre'' Gaspar Ilom, which he took from a character in '' Hombres de maíz'', one of his father's novels. When four guerrilla groups, including the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bernardo Alvarado Monzón
Bernardo Alvarado Monzón (8 November 1925 – ) was a Guatemalan communist leader. He led the clandestine Guatemalan Party of Labour (PGT), and became its general secretary. Under Alvarado's leadership the party adopted the line of "Popular Revolutionary War." Alvarado was captured by state forces on 26 September 1972 in Guatemala City Guatemala City (, also known colloquially by the nickname Guate), is the Capital city, national capital and largest city of the Guatemala, Republic of Guatemala. It is also the Municipalities of Guatemala, municipal capital of the Guatemala Depa .... He was killed soon thereafter. References 1925 births 1972 deaths Guatemalan Party of Labour politicians Guatemalan people who died in prison custody Prisoners who died in Guatemalan detention {{Guatemala-politician-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marco Antonio Yon Sosa
Marco Antonio Yon Sosa (7 September 1929 – May 18, 1970) was the leader of the Revolutionary Movement 13th November, a Guatemalan guerrilla organization. Yon Sosa broke with the Stalinist Rebel Armed Forces in December 1964 over the question of a ceasefire, which he opposed. He was affiliated to the Fourth International (Posadist) from 1963 until 1966 when he was expelled from the International over accusing them of diverting funds which had been raised to support MR-13. Yon was killed in a shootout with Mexican border police in 1970, in the Chiapas area near the Guatemalan border. The circumstances of his death, however are disputed; Robert Lamberg notes in 1972 that Yon had been underground by that point for quite some time with the general circumstances making an armed confrontation with border forces unlikely. Gino Perente notes that Yon Sosa hadn't died in some act of revolutionary heroism at all, but in a drunken car accident in downtown Guatemala City. Yon particip ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Luis Augusto Turcios Lima
Luis Augusto Turcios Lima (23 November 1941 – 2 October 1966) was a Guatemalan army officer and leader of the Rebel Armed Forces (''Fuerzas Armadas Rebeldes'', or FAR). Turcios Lima entered military service at age 15, graduating as second lieutenant. He then received commando training at Fort Benning, Georgia USA. On his return to Guatemala he undertook military service in Petén, and later participated in the 13 November 1960 military uprising against President Miguel Ydígoras. He was killed in 1966 when a bomb exploded inside his car. Eduardo Galeano Eduardo Germán María Hughes Galeano (; 3 September 1940 – 13 April 2015) was a Uruguayan journalist, writer and novelist considered, among other things, "a literary giant of the Latin American left" and "global soccer's pre-eminent man of le ... writes about the mythic aspect attributed to Turcios Lima in his 1967 ''Guatemala: Occupied Country:'' "The previous leader of the Rebel Armed Forces, Luis Augusto Turcios, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rolando Morán
Comandante Rolando Morán (29 December 1929 – 11 September 1998) was the ''nom de guerre'' of Ricardo Arnoldo Ramírez de León, leader of Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG), an armed Guatemalan communist resistance organization. At the time of his death he held the post of Secretary General of the URNG. Life Born at Quetzaltenango in 1929, Ramírez studied law at the National University of San Carlos. At the end of the 1940s he became active as a counselor in the road construction trade union. He joined the Communist Party of Guatemala during the democratic period of the country (1944–54). It was in this time that he became acquainted with Che Guevara, who was touring the country. This was the beginning of a friendship of many years. Ramírez began to fight Guatemala's rightist regime after leftist president Jacobo Árbenz was overthrown by the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état. He was one of the organizers of the Guerrilla Army of the Poor in 1972, one of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
