Institutional Democratic Party
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Institutional Democratic Party ( es, Partido Institucional Democrático, PID) 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 pro-government
political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...
active during the 1970s. The PID was formed in 1963 by
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 ...
after he had seized power in a coup. A
centre-right Centre-right politics lean to the Right-wing politics, right of the Left–right politics, political spectrum, but are closer to the Centrism, centre. From the 1780s to the 1880s, there was a shift in the Western world of social class structure a ...
party, it was modelled on the
Mexican Mexican may refer to: Mexico and its culture *Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America ** People *** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants *** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...
Institutional Revolutionary Party The Institutional Revolutionary Party ( es, Partido Revolucionario Institucional, ; abbr. PRI) is a political party in Mexico that was founded in 1929 and held uninterrupted power in the country for 71 years, from 1929 to 2000, first as the Nati ...
. From the onset the party was dominated by the country's military elite. Despite this the party maintained close links with individual civilian parties during its existence, with their civilian allies often outnumbering them in the Assembly. The PID was first tested in the 1966 general election when the leader of the
Revolutionary Party of Guatemala The Revolutionary Party ( es, Partido Revolucionario, PR) was the ruling Guatemalan political party from 1966 to 1970. The party was founded in 1957 by Mario Méndez Montenegro. It was on the moderate left, but its opponents claimed that during t ...
, Mario Mendez Montenegro agreed to support the PID. However he died not long before the vote and his brother
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 ...
took over in his place. A supporter of reform, he split from the PID and won the election overwhelmingly. However his Presidency was blighted by violence from the
far-right Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...
National Liberation Movement (MLN) and the PID formed an alliance with this group for the 1970 election, resulting in the success of their candidate
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. ...
. In the 1974 general election they were again supported by the MLN and their joint candidate
Kjell Eugenio Laugerud García Brigadier General Kjell Eugenio Laugerud García (24 January 1930
secured the
Presidency A presidency is an administration or the executive, the collective administrative and governmental entity that exists around an office of president of a state or nation. Although often the executive branch of government, and often personified by a ...
. However this election saw cracks appear in the PID as all three candidates were leading military officers who would thus have been expected to support the party. These became more acute following the
1976 Guatemala earthquake The 1976 Guatemala earthquake struck on February 4 at with a moment magnitude of 7.5. The shock was centered on the Motagua Fault, about 160 km northeast of Guatemala City at a depth of near the town of Los Amates in the department of Izab ...
at a time when Laugerud was involved in a feud with Arana Osorio over control of the National Reconstruction Committee. Ultimately Laugerud put a block on Arana Osorio's activity by bringing one of his closest aides to trial for organising
death squads A death squad is an armed group whose primary activity is carrying out extrajudicial killings or forced disappearances as part of political repression, genocide, ethnic cleansing, or revolutionary terror. Except in rare cases in which they are ...
, despite the fact that Laugerud had been involved in the same practice. In the 1978 general election the PID aligned with the Revolutionary Party to secure the election of
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 ...
. However, after this victory internal divisions within the party continued to escalate, whilst from the outside the business community began to grow as more vocal critics, particularly over the issue of PID operatives using their positions to enrich themselves. When plans to rig upcoming elections for the PID candidate came to light the military opposition took action by overthrowing Lucas Garcia and installing
Efraín Ríos Montt José Efraín Ríos Montt (; 16 June 1926 – 1 April 2018) was a Guatemalan military officer and politician who served as ''de facto'' President of Guatemala in 1982–83. His brief tenure as chief executive was one of the bloodiest periods i ...
as President. As a result, a new generation of young officers replaced the old and the PID did not continue in government after the coup. The party won five seats in the Constituent Assembly elections in 1984. For the 1985 elections, the PID and MLN renewed their alliance and backed
Mario Sandoval Alarcón Mario Sandoval Alarcón (May 18, 1923 – April 17, 2003) was a Guatemalan politician. Biography He is the founder in 1960 of the Movimiento de Liberación Nacional (MLN) which was a nacionalist anti-communist political party. In 1954, he helpe ...
as presidential candidate, finishing fourth in the presidential race while becoming the third largest block in Congress. A rump PID emerged in 1990 when it merged with the
Guatemalan Republican Front The Institutional Republican Party ( es, Partido Republicano Institucional), until 2013 known as the Guatemalan Republican Front (''Frente Republicano Guatemalteco''), was a right-wing to far-right political party in Guatemala. History It was cre ...
(FRG) and the National Unity Front to run for election as the No Sell-Out Platform, although this alliance quickly became dominated by the FRG.GUATEMALA: The Party System from 1963 to 2000, by Daniel M. Corstange
/ref>


References

{{Authority control Guatemalan Civil War Political parties established in 1963 Conservative parties in Guatemala Defunct political parties in Guatemala