Juan Federico Ponce Vaides (27 March 1889 – 29 January 1956) was the acting

President of Guatemala The president of Guatemala (), officially titled President of the Republic of Guatemala (), is the head of state and head of government of Guatemala, elected to a single four-year term. The position of President was created in 1839. Selectio ...

from 4 July 1944 to 20 October 1944. He was overthrown by a popular uprising on 20 October 1944 that began the

Guatemalan Revolution The period in the history of Guatemala between the coups against Jorge Ubico in 1944 and Jacobo Árbenz in 1954 is known locally as the Revolution (). It has also been called the Ten Years of Spring, highlighting the peak years of represen ...

Life

Ponce Vaides was born in a wealthy upper-class family in

Cobán Cobán (), fully Santo Domingo de Cobán, is the capital of the department of Alta Verapaz in central Guatemala. It also serves as the administrative center for the surrounding Cobán municipality. It is located 219 km from Guatemala City. A ...

Alta Verapaz Alta Verapaz () is a department in the north central part of Guatemala. The capital and chief city of the department is Cobán. Verapaz is bordered to the north by El Petén, to the east by Izabal, to the south by Zacapa, El Progreso, and ...

. His father was Mariano Ponce Contreras, his mother Victoria Vaides Arrivillaga. During the government of

Manuel Estrada Cabrera Manuel José Estrada Cabrera (21 November 1857 – 24 September 1924) was the President of Guatemala from 1898 to 1920. A lawyer with no military background, he modernised the country's industry and transportation infrastructure, via granting c ...

, Vaides took part in the ''National Campaign of 1906'' against

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...

and

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

. After that, he became commander and political leader in different departments of state. After the downfall of Cabrera in 1920, he lost his brother, who was executed during a popular uprising.

Presidency

Jorge Ubico, the dictator of

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

from 1931 to 1944, was forced to resign on 1 July 1944 by a popular pro-democracy movement. Ubico appointed three generals, Ponce Vaides, Eduardo Villagran Ariza, and Buenaventura Pineda, to a

military junta A military junta () is a system of government led by a committee of military leaders. The term ''Junta (governing body), junta'' means "meeting" or "committee" and originated in the Junta (Peninsular War), national and local junta organized by t ...

to succeed him. On 3 July, Ponce Vaides forced the Guatemalan congress at gunpoint to appoint him interim president. Ponce pledged to hold free elections soon, while at the same time suppressing the protests. Freedom of the press was suspended, arbitrary detentions continued, and memorial services for slain revolutionaries were prohibited.

Instability

Protests had grown to the point where the government could not stamp them out, and rural areas also began protesting the dictatorship. The government began to use the police to intimidate the indigenous population to keep it in power through the forthcoming election, resulting in more support for an armed revolution. The army itself had also begun to be disillusioned by the junta, and progressives within it had begun to plot a coup. On 1 October 1944, Alejandro Cordova, the editor of ''El Imparcial,'' the main opposition newspaper, was assassinated. This led to the military coup plotters reaching out to the leaders of the protests, in an attempt to turn the coup into a popular uprising.

Stabilization attempts

Ponce Vaides announced elections, but the pro-democracy forces denounced them, citing his attempts to rig them in his favor. He attempted to stabilize his regime by playing on inter-racial tension within the Guatemalan population. The most vocal support for the revolution had come from people of mixed descent, or ''Ladinos'' and Ponce sought to exploit their fear of the Amerindians by paying thousands of Indigenous peasants to march in Guatemala city in his support, and promising them land of their own if they supported the

Liberal party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

that Ubico had begun as a front for the dictatorship.

Overthrow

By mid-October, several different plans to overthrow the junta had been set in motion by the various factions of the pro-democracy movement, including the teachers, the students, and the progressive factions of the army. On 19 October, the government learned of one of these conspiracies. The same day, a small group of army officers launched a coup from within the army, led by the coup-plotters Francisco Javier Arana and Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán. They were joined the next day, 20 October, by other factions of the army and the civilian population. Initially, the battle went against the revolutionaries, but after an appeal for support their ranks were swelled by unionists and students, they eventually subdued the police and the army factions loyal to Ponce Vaides, and Ponce Vaides surrendered unconditionally.

Aftermath

Ponce Vaides and Ubico were allowed to leave the country safely. The military junta was replaced by another three-person junta consisting of Árbenz, Arana, and an upper-class youth named Jorge Toriello. The junta promised free and open elections to the presidency and the congress, as well as for a

constituent assembly A constituent assembly (also known as a constitutional convention, constitutional congress, or constitutional assembly) is a body assembled for the purpose of drafting or revising a constitution. Members of a constituent assembly may be elected b ...

. The presidential elections were won by

Juan José Arévalo Juan José Arévalo Bermejo (10 September 1904 – 8 October 1990) was a Guatemalan statesman and professor of philosophy who became Guatemala's first democratically elected president in 1945. He was elected following a popular uprising again ...

, who began a series of social and economic reforms that constituted the

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ponce Vaides 1889 births 1956 deaths 20th-century presidents of Guatemala Vice presidents of Guatemala Guatemalan generals Liberal Party (Guatemala) politicians World War II political leaders