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Guatemalan Civil War
The Guatemalan Civil War was a civil war in Guatemala fought from 1960 to 1996 between the government of Guatemala and various leftist rebel groups. The government forces have been condemned for committing genocide against the Maya population of Guatemala during the civil war and for widespread human rights violations against civilians. The context of the struggle was based on longstanding issues of unfair land distribution; European-descended residents and foreign companies, such as the American United Fruit Company, had dominated control over much of the land, leading to conflicts with the rural poor. Democratic elections during the Guatemalan Revolution in 1944 and 1951 had brought popular leftist governments to power. A United States-backed coup d'état in 1954 installed the military regime of Carlos Castillo Armas, who was followed by a series of right-wing military dictators. The Civil War started on 13 November 1960, when a group of left-wing junior military officers le ... [...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 communist governments were installed in their place. During these civil wars, the United States pursued its interests by supporting right-wing governments, who were supported by the elite classes, against left-wing guerrillas, who were supported by the peasant and working class. 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 econo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Pinochet File
''The Pinochet File'' is a National Security Archive book written by Peter Kornbluh covering over approximately two decades of declassified documents, from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), White House, and United States Department of State, regarding American covert activities in Chile. It is based on more than 24,000 previously classified documents that were released as part of the Chilean Declassification Project during the Clinton administration, between June 1999 and June 2000. Significance ''The Pinochet File'' was selected as one of "The Best Books of 2003" in the nonfiction category by the ''Los Angeles Times''. ''The New Yorker'' said, "The evidence that Kornbluh has gathered is overwhelming." in its review. The ''Newsweek'' review of ''The Pinochet File'' describes it as "...actually two distinct but intersecting books. The first is a narrative account of the Nixon administration's involvement in Chile. Its mission was to make s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fernando Romeo Lucas García
General Fernando Romeo Lucas García (4 July 1924 – † 27 May 2006) was the 37th President of Guatemala from July 1, 1978 to March 23, 1982. He was elected as Institutional Democratic Party candidate (with the support of the Revolutionary Party). Elections for his presidency were fraud-ridden. During Lucas García's regime, tensions between the radical left and the government increased. The military started to murder political opponents while counterinsurgency measures further terrorized populations of poor civilians. Franja Transversal del Norte The first settler project in the FTN was in Sebol-Chinajá in Alta Verapaz. 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. In 1958, during the government of General Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes the Inter-American Development ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kjell Eugenio Laugerud García
Brigadier General Kjell Eugenio Laugerud García (24 January 1930''Heads of States and Governments Since 1945'' Harris M. Lentz, Routledge, 4 Feb 2014, page 345 – 9 December 2009) was a Guatemalan military officer who served as the 36th from 1974 until 1978. He was the son of a Norwegian father and a |
Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio
Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio (July 17, 1918 – December 6, 2003) was President of Guatemala from 1970 to 1974. 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" which was followed by heightened counterinsurgency measures. His government committed serious human rights violations and used state terrorism in its war against the guerrillas including government sponsored "death squads". Security forces regularly detained, disappear ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julio César Méndez Montenegro
Julio César Méndez Montenegro (November 23, 1915 – † April 30, 1996) was the Revolutionary Party President of Guatemala from July 1, 1966 to July 1, 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. Mendez had assumed the presidency under a pact in July 1966 that gave the armed forces carte blanche with respect to internal security matters and an effective veto over governmental policy. 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enrique Peralta Azurdia
Colonel Alfredo Enrique Peralta Azurdia (June 17, 1908 – February 18, 1997) was President of Guatemala from March 31, 1963 to July 1, 1966. Enrique Peralta was born on June 17, 1908 in Guatemala City. He took over the presidency after a coup against president Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes, under whom he served as Agriculture (1959–1960) and Defense Minister (1961–1963). He set up the Institutional Democratic Party, a pro-military governing party modeled on the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which dominated Guatemalan politics until 1982. In the 1978 election, he was the candidate of the National Liberation Movement but was defeated by Fernando Romeo Lucas García General Fernando Romeo Lucas García (4 July 1924 – † 27 May 2006) was the 37th President of Guatemala from July 1, 1978 to March 23, 1982. He was elected as Institutional Democratic Party candidate (with the support of the Revolutionary Pa .... References Presidents of Guatemala People of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes
General José Miguel Ramón Ydígoras Fuentes (17 October 1895 – 27 October 1982) was the conservative President of Guatemala from 1958 to March 1963. He was also the main challenger to Jacobo Árbenz during the 1950 presidential election. He had 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 Guatemala at the Paris Peace Conference. He subseque ... [...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 in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He joined the PGT in September 1963. He is a signatory of the 1996 Peace Accords. He was elected as a member of the Congress of Guatemala on the URNG ticket from 2000 to 2004. As of 2009, he was a columnist for the Guatemalan daily newspaper ''La Hora''. He died in Guatemala City on January 2, 2020. See also * History of Guatemala * Guatemalan Civil War The Guatemalan Civil War was a civil war in Guatemala fought from 1960 to 1996 between the government of Guatema ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rodrigo Asturias
Rodrigo Asturias Amado (30 October 1939 – 15 June 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 these ... [...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 ( es, Ciudad de Guatemala), known locally as Guatemala or Guate, is the capital and largest city of Guatemala, and the most populous urban area in Central America. The city is located in the south-central part of the country, ne .... 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 leader of the Revolutionary Movement 13th November, a Guatemalan guerrilla organization. Yon Sosa left the Rebel Armed Forces in 1969. He was affiliated to the Fourth International from 1963 until 1966 when he broke with the International over alleged misappropriation of funds. 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 participated in the November 13, 1960, military uprising against president Miguel Ydígoras. Yon's father was a Chinese merchant, and under his w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
