Víctor Manuel Gutiérrez Garbín (10 January 1922 – 6 March 1966) was a
Guatemala
Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...
n labour leader. Gutiérrez, a school teacher by profession, was head of the
Confederación General de Trabajadores de Guatemala
The Central General de Trabajadores de Guatemala (CGTG) is a national trade union center in Guatemala. It is descended from the ''Central Nacional de Trabajadores'', which operated clandestinely after the disappearance of 21 of its leaders arres ...
(CGTG). Born in
Santa Rosa, Guatemala
Santa Rosa () is a department in Guatemala. The capital is Cuilapa.
History 1913 earthquake
On Saturday 8 March 1913 and magnitude 6.4 earthquake hit Santa Rosa, destroying its department capital, Cuilapa. Both the initial quake and the aft ...
, Gutiérrez was a devout Catholic in his youth, and he was known as a quiet, self-spoken man. He has been referred to as the most important labour leader in Guatemala from 1944 to 1954.
Gutiérrez was a member of the
Communist Party of Guatemala (PCG). In 1950 he split from PCG on issues relating to the social composition of the Central Committee of the party, and he founded the
Guatemalan Revolutionary Workers Party
Guatemalan Revolutionary Workers Party (in Spanish: ''Partido Revolucionario Obrero Guatemalteco'') was a communist party in Guatemala. PROG was founded in 1950, following a split from the Communist Party of Guatemala (PCG). PROG made its first pu ...
(PROG). In the fall of 1951 he travelled to
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
for the
World Federation of Trade Unions
The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) is an international federation of trade unions established in 1945. Founded in the immediate aftermath of World War Two, the organization built on the pre-war legacy of the International Federation of ...
General Council Meeting and later to
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
. On returning to Guatemala, Gutiérrez dissolved PROG on February 2, 1952, and rejoined PCG. The 2nd congress of PCG (which then changed name to Guatemalan Party of Labour, PGT), held the same year, elected Gutiérrez to the party Central Committee.
Gutiérrez remained a CC member of PGT until his death. On 3 March 1966, he was, along with other PGT leaders, arrested in a joint military and police operation designed with the aid of U.S. intelligence agents. He was tortured to death on March 6 and his corpse interred secretly in the countryside.
THE ATROCITY FILES
Kate Doyle
References
External links
CIA document on Gutiérrez' personality
1922 births
1966 deaths
Guatemalan trade union leaders
Guatemalan Party of Labour politicians
Guatemalan Revolutionary Workers Party politicians
Guatemalan people who died in prison custody
Prisoners who died in Guatemalan detention
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