The National Liberation Movement ( es, Movimiento de Liberación Nacional, MLN) 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 Hon ...

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 ideological or p ...

formed in 1954 by

Carlos Castillo Armas Carlos Castillo Armas (; 4 November 191426 July 1957) was a Guatemalan military officer and politician who was the 28th president of Guatemala, serving from 1954 to 1957 after taking power in a coup d'état. A member of the right-wing Nation ...

. The party served as political platform for the

military junta A military junta () is a government led by a committee of military leaders. The term ''junta'' means "meeting" or "committee" and originated in the national and local junta organized by the Spanish resistance to Napoleon's invasion of Spain in ...

History

The MLN was founded as the National Democratic Movement ( es, Movimiento Democratico Nacional, MDN) in 1954 by President

. It was the ruling party from 1954 until 1958. The party supported the government of President Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes (1958–1963).Ameringer, Charles D
''Political Parties of the Americas, 1980s to 1990s: Canada, Latin America, and the West Indies''

Greenwood Publishing Group Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. (GPG), also known as ABC-Clio/Greenwood (stylized ABC-CLIO/Greenwood), is an educational and academic publisher ( middle school through university level) which is today part of ABC-Clio. Established in 1967 as G ...

, 1992
p. 347.
. The 1963 coup that saw the government of Ydígoras Fuentes overthrown led to the MLN becoming the main party of the military. Although they were not successful in the presidential election of 1964 their candidate in 1970,

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. ...

, was elected

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

, in coalition with the Institutional Democratic Party (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

: ''Partido Institucional Democrático'', PID). Victory was also secured in the 1974 election when

Kjell Eugenio Laugerud García Brigadier General Kjell Eugenio Laugerud García (24 January 1930

's candidacy was also endorsed by the PID. However they later broke their alliance with the PID for the 1978 elections. Its candidate, former President Enrique Peralta Azurdia, placed second in the election. The party was close to the

MANO Mano may refer to: People * Mano people, an ethnic group in Liberia * Mano (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname * Mano (Mozambican footballer) (born 1984), real name Celso Halilo de Abdul * Mano (Portuguese footballer) (b ...

death squad 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 f ...

. Another faction of the party, the

National Reformist Movement National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ...

, split away after the coup although it never became a major factor in electoral politics. In the 1982 election, the MLN's candidate was former vice-president

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 ...

, who placed second in what was considered a fraudulent election, followed by a

coup d'état A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...

in 1982. For the 1984 elections to the

Constitutional 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 party allied with National Authentic Central, another right-wing party, and the 23 seats they won constituted the largest bloc in the assembly, albeit outnumbered by reformist parties. They renewed their alliance with the Institutional Democratic Party for the 1985 election. Once more, Mario Sandoval Alarcón was its presidential candidate, and placed fourth in the race while the alliance won 12 seats in Congress. The party faded thereafter: it ran alongside the National Advancement Front in

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicis ...

without much success, winning just 4 seats in Congress. Left to continue alone, it secured less than 1% in 1995 (winning a single seat) and again in 1999 (when it lost representation).Corstange, Daniel M
Guatemala: "The Party System from 1963 to 2000."
New York: Free Press, 1980. . Archived fro
the original
on August 2, 2012.

References

{{Authority control 1954 establishments in Guatemala 1999 disestablishments in Guatemala Defunct agrarian political parties Conservative parties in Guatemala Defunct political parties in Guatemala Guatemalan Civil War Political parties disestablished in 1999 Political parties established in 1954 Anti-communism in Guatemala

History

See also

References