Rodrigo Asturias Amado (30 October 1939 – 15 June 2005) was a Guatemalan guerrilla leader and

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

Biography

Asturias was born in

Guatemala City Guatemala City ( es, Ciudad de Guatemala), known locally as Guatemala or Guate, is the capital and largest city of Guatemala, and the most populous urban area in Central America. The city is located in the south-central part of the country, ne ...

, the first-born son of

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-winning author

Miguel Ángel Asturias Miguel Ángel Asturias Rosales (; October 19, 1899 – June 9, 1974) was a Nobel Prize-winning Guatemalan poet-diplomat, novelist, playwright and journalist. Asturias helped establish Latin American literature's contribution to mainstream W ...

. He studied law in Chile and travelled extensively through the Southern Cone. He later taught at the

University of Chile The University of Chile ( es, Universidad de Chile) is a public research university in Santiago, Chile. It was founded on November 19, 1842, and inaugurated on September 17, 1843.

and the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Following the outbreak of the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

, he joined the Guatemalan Workers Party (Partido Guatemalteco de los Trabajadores or PGT) guerrilla group. During this time he was arrested, tried, and jailed, after which he spent seven years in exile in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. He returned to Guatemala in 1971 and helped form the Revolutionary Organization of the People in Arms (Organización Revolucionaria del Pueblo en Armas, ORPA). He fought under the '' nom de guerre'' Gaspar Ilom, which he took from a character in '' Hombres de maíz'', one of his father's novels. When four guerrilla groups, including these two, combined to create the

Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity The Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (in Spanish: ''Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca'', URNG-MAIZ or most commonly URNG) is a Guatemalan political party that started as a guerrilla movement but laid down its arms in 1996 and b ...

(Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca, URNG) in 1982, Asturias emerged as one of the four leaders of its general command. He was the only one of the leaders not to participate in signing the peace agreement reached with the government in the early 1990s. Following the re-establishment of the constitutional order, Asturias fought the 2003

presidential election A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The pre ...

as the candidate of the URNG; his vice-presidential running mate was Pablo Ceto. In the first round ballot, he received 2.6% of the popular vote. He died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

at his home in Guatemala City.

External links

Obituary
1939 births 2005 deaths People from Guatemala City Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity politicians Guatemalan revolutionaries {{Guatemala-politician-stub