The Revolutionary Party ( es, Partido Revolucionario, PR) was the ruling Guatemalan

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 ...

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 the early 1960s, the country's

communists Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

adopted a policy of

entryism Entryism (also called entrism, enterism, or infiltration) is a political strategy in which an organisation or state encourages its members or supporters to join another, usually larger, organization in an attempt to expand influence and expand the ...

towards the PR, which was used as justification for the coup of

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 ...

. Despite this the PR survived the coup and contested the 1966 general election, managing to gain the 50,000 members required by the military government in order to be allowed to run.Daniel M. Costange
GUATEMALA: The Party System from 1963 to 2000
/ref> Montenegro was initially chosen as their presidential candidate and agreed to an alliance with the military-backed

Institutional Democratic Party The Institutional Democratic Party ( es, Partido Institucional Democrático, PID) was a Guatemalan pro-government political party active during the 1970s. The PID was formed in 1963 by Enrique Peralta Azurdia after he had seized power in a coup. ...

(PID). However prior to the vote, Montenegro died and was replaced as candidate by 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 ...

, a more committed reformer who repudiated the alliance with the military. The younger Montenegro brother was duly elected as President, but his promised reforms were implemented poorly as despite his repudiation of any alliance, the military remained too powerful a check on his ambitions. Alongside this the government was also blighted by violence from the far right National Liberation Movement, who would go on to be the PID's running mates in their successful 1970 election campaign. The PR remained an important opposition force despite not regaining the presidency, but in the later 1970s, the party moved to the

right Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical ...

and became more well disposed towards the military to the point that they were the

's running mates in the 1978 general election which saw

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 P ...

elected as President.Guillermo O'Donnell, Philippe C. Schmitter and Laurence Whitehead, ''Transitions from Authoritarian Rule'', 1986, p. 119

Francisco Villagrán Kramer Francisco Villagrán Kramer (5 April 1927 – 12 July 2011) was a Guatemalan lawyer and social democrat who served as vice president in the government of General Romeo Lucas García, beginning in 1978. He resigned from office on 1 September 198 ...

became vice-president, hoping that the PR's entrance into a coalition with the pro-military party would provide a moderate counterweight but resigned in 1980 and left for the United States after disagreements within the government. Nevertheless, the coalition was maintained for 1982 when it backed

Ángel Aníbal Guevara Ángel Aníbal Guevara Rodríguez () is a Guatemalan soldier and politician. He was born in La Democracia, Escuintla in 1924. Having served as defense minister in the previous administration, Guevara was victorious in the 7 March 1982 presi ...

, who won a fraudulent election. The blatant fraud was one of the factors triggering a military coup which placed

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 ...

in power. In Constitutional Assembly elections in 1984, the PR won 10 seats. In

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

, the PR formed an alliance with the Democratic Party of National Conciliation and backed Jorge Serrano Elias in the presidential race. Serrano placed third and the alliance won 11 seats in Congress. The PR lost its influence to the point that when the 1990 election was held, the party captured only one seat in the

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

. That seat was subsequently lost and the PR faded from Guatemalan politics.

References

{{Reflist Political parties established in 1957 Conservative parties in Guatemala Defunct political parties in Guatemala Guatemalan Revolution 1957 establishments in Guatemala