Civil War in Guatemala: Topic History

In my first entry, I provided a brief overview of my topic with some history. In this post, I will go further in detail to explain the chain of events that led up to and occurred during Guatemala's civil war.

In 1944, Guatemala was under the dictatorship of General Jorge Ubico. His regime was overthrown by a group known as the "October Revolutionaries". This led to the election of Juan Jose Arevalo in 1945, who remained president until 1951. The efforts of social reform by Arevalo were continued by Colonel Jacob Arbenz. Arbenz allowed the communist Guatemalan Labor Party to obtain legal status in 1952. The communists came to power part way through his term. There were several of those in the private sector and the military that viewed Arbenz's party as a menace. This escalated to the point that the army refused to fight for Arbenz's government when Guatemalan was attacked by military forces from Honduras in 1954. These forces were led by Colonel Castillo Armas, who took control of the government.

In 1958, General Ydigoras Fuentes took control following the murder of Castillo Armas. However his rule was considered tyrannical and a group of junior military officers revolted against Fuentes in 1960. They failed to overthrow the government and went into hiding. This group of junior officers because the core of the forces that rebelled against the government for the 36 years that followed.

From these events, s number of left-wing guerrilla groups formed. They sought to sabotage and destabilize the government economically and politically. In 1982, they came together for form the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity. Simultaneously, right-wing group, composed of self-appointed vigilantes, tortured and kill those who were suspected of left-wing activity.

The same year, a conflict over the next president arose. The current president, General Romeo Garcia, hand picked Angel Guevara to be his successor. However members of the military were not pleased and staged a coup to prevent Guevara from taking power. A Protestant pastor, Rios Montt, was brought in to negotiate the departure of former political cabinet and assume the role of president. Montt was hated by the guerrilla forces because they were a prime target of his to eliminate throughout his campaign. When Montt suspended political parties and removed electoral law, he became the self-proclaimed "President of the Republic."

Guerrilla forces denounced Montt as their president and worked to remove him from office. Montt battled the guerrilla opposition by conscripting Guatemalan civilians into local defense patrols, which was criticized by many because of the increased militarization of the country. In 1983, Montt was desposed by his Minister of Defense who succeeded him. General Humberto Victores felt that religious fanatics were abusing their power and corrupting the goverment.

Starting in 1984, Humberto Victores was able to return Guatemala back to a democracy. The nation slowly worked towards diminishing the mass violence that had ravaged the country. But this these years ,up until 1994, were still filled with violence and controversy due to an economic downfall in Guatemala.

Several years of conflict were resolved with the signing of the 1996 Peace Accords. It secured the immediate demobilization of guerrilla forces and a reduction in the Guatemalan military forces. They also removed a majority of foreign investment in hopes to make the country more financially independent. However the income distribution remains quite unequal with a majority of the population below the poverty line.

Reference:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/guatemala.htm