The Popular Liberation Front ( es, Frente Popular Libertador, or FPL) was a

reformist Reformism is a political doctrine advocating the reform of an existing system or institution instead of its abolition and replacement. Within the socialist movement, reformism is the view that gradual changes through existing institutions can ...

Guatemalan political party formed in 1944 largely patronized by the middle class and university students. It was a part of the popular movement that overthrew dictator

Jorge Ubico Jorge Ubico Castañeda (10 November 1878 – 14 June 1946), nicknamed Number Five or also Central America's Napoleon, was a Guatemalan dictator. A general in the Guatemalan army, he was elected to the presidency in 1931, in an election where ...

and 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 ( es, La Revolución). It has also been called the Ten Years of Spring, highlighting the peak y ...

. During this period, it was one of the two largest Guatemalan parties, the other being the National Renovation Party (PRN) led by teachers. In Guatemala's first democratic elections in 1944, it joined a broad coalition of revolutionary parties to support the election bid of

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

, but subsequently distanced itself from his government. In November 1945, it merged with the National Renovation Party to form the Revolutionary Action Party (PAR), but split from it eighteen months later. This split was partially the result of ideological differences, and partially the result of manipulations by Arévalo, who preferred to deal with a fractured opposition. During the period that it was a part of the PAR, as well as in alliance with the PRN, it enjoyed a majority in the Guatemalan Congress for the entire presidential term of Juan José Arévalo, and until 1949, it was the largest of the parties involved in the Guatemalan Revolution. The FPL was also the most conservative of the revolutionary parties, until 1949. In that year the party split between those who supported the presidential candidacy of

Francisco Javier Arana Francisco Javier Arana Castro (; 3 December 1905 – 18 July 1949) was a Guatemalan military leader and one of the three members of the revolutionary junta that ruled Guatemala from 20 October 1944 to 15 March 1945 during the early part of the ...

, and those who opposed him. Arana's supporters left to form the "FPL Ortodoxo," or the Orthodox FPL. In the 1950 election, the remainder of the FPL formally endorsed Víctor Manuel Giordani, but some party members defected to support Jorge García Granados, another moderate civilian, while still others supported

Jacobo Árbenz Juan Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán (; 14 September 191327 January 1971) was a Guatemalan military officer and politician who served as the 25th President of Guatemala. He was Minister of National Defense from 1944 to 1950, and the second democratical ...

, the defence minister and the administration's candidate. This infighting furthered the decline of the FPL.

Notes and references

;References ;Sources * * 1944 establishments in Guatemala Defunct agrarian political parties Guatemalan Revolution Defunct political parties in Guatemala Political parties established in 1944 Political parties with year of disestablishment missing Social democratic parties {{Guatemala-party-stub