Naoko Takeuchi

See the principal article: Guatemala

The period précolombienne

Maya civilization appeared approximately 1.000 years before the Christian era. It developed in almost all the Guatemala. However, the majority of the cities of the traditional time of the area of Petén, located in the plains of north, were abandoned about year 1.000 after Jesus-Christ. On the other hand, the States installed in the plates of the center of the country continued to thrive until the arrival of the Spanish . Pedro de Alvarado, a Spanish Conquistador, destroyed and subjected brutally these States between 1523 and 1527.

The natives who lived the highlands of Guatemala, such as for example the Cakchiquel, the Mam, the Quiché and the Tzutujil still constitute a big part of the national population.

The Spanish reign

The Spaniards conquered all the Central America, and placed the major part of current Guatemala under the dependence of the general Capitainerie of Guatemala.

In 1524, Pedro de Alvarado founded Santiago of los Caballeros , named today Ciudad Vieja (literally the Vielle city). Santiago of los Caballeros - which became the first of the three capitals that Guatemala will know - was destroyed by Inondation S and a Earthquake in 1542.

The survivors founded, in 1543, a new city which bears now the name of Antigua . Antigua became one of the richest capitals of the continent at the 17th century. It was on several occasions struck by ic eruptions Volcan, Inondation S and earthquakes. Two of those destroyed the city in 1773. Certain ruins going back to before the destruction are preserved and are regarded today as national monuments.

In 1776, Matías de Gálvez there Gallardo, the president of the Audiencia ordered to give up Antigua, considering it too dangerous, and made build the third and current capital of Guatemala: Guatemala (city). The third capital, the town of Guatemala,

Independence and the 19th century

Guatemala becomes independent the September 15th 1821. Guatemala belonged to the empire of Mexico during some time then integrated the United Provinces of the Central America. Those are dismantled at the conclusion of the civil war of 1838 - 1840. Rafael Carrera is one of the key characters of the revolution against the federal government and the parcelling out of the country. Supported by the conservatives, the land great landowners and the Church, this one remains dictator of Guatemala of 1844 until its death in 1865.

The liberal Révolution occurred in 1871. It was carried out by Justo Barrios which worked with the modernization of the country, the improvement of the trade and introduced new cultures and industries. Barrios wanted to join together the countries of Central America and engaged of the wars to try to achieve its goal. It failed and died on a battle field in 1885.

As of 1880, a company of Boston (Boston Company fruit) shows an interest for the hot grounds of Guatemala. Future the United Fruit Company thus begins its integration, which will extend until ensuring a seizure of the the United States on the economy of the countries of Latin America. Some time after, the latter buys the whole of the railway networks of the country as well as the main port, located at Puerto Barrios. During nearly one century, many dictators follow one another and will ensure the uncontested integrity of the monopoly states-unien on the country.

The beginning of the 20th century

At the beginning of the 20th century, during the long mandates of Manuel Jose Estrada Will pull up and of the general Jorge Ubico, the Multinationale, United Fruit Company (UFC), based with the the United States continued its control of the Guatemalan economy. Indeed, in the years 1930, during the dictatorship of Jorge Ubico, the country opened still more with the Investissement S foreigners. Ubico granted even privileges to United Fruit Company which invests in the country, by buying shares in the Railroad, the electricity, the Télégraphe and 40 percent of the best grounds of Guatemala. The company controlled also fact only the harbor infrastructure of the country. Consequently, the government often adopted a position subjected vis-a-vis United Fruit Company (UFC). Admittedly, the UFC built some school S, but she was also opposed to construction Autoroute S of fear of seeing with a competitor with her Monopole in the Railroad.

“Ten years of spring” (1944-1954)

Inversion of the dictator Jorge Ubico in 1944 mark the ten years beginning of democracy. In 1945, Juan Jose Arévalo, leader of the party having reversed the dictator, is elected president of Guatemala. It founds a new era of social investments, adopts a new labor regulation and makes the right to strike legal. Jacobo Arbenz succeeds to him in 1951 with a vast majority of voice. It launches several programs of health, elimination of illiteracy and makes adopt Decree 900, or the law of the land reform, which obliges the rich person landowners to pay taxes. This one, which forces the United Fruit Company to yield an important part of its uncultivated lands (or unutilised) to the peasants, has an effect striking down with the the United States.

Operation PBSUCCESS (1954)

At the time of the tenth conference of the chancellors of the Organization of the American States (OAS), with Caracas, in March 1954, John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State of the president states-unien Dwight Eisenhower, principal shareholder of the United Fruit Company and brother of Allen Welsh Dulles, director of the CIA, approves the allegations of the delegates, Fulgencio Batista, dictator of Cuba, Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina, dictator of the Dominican Republic and Anastasio Somoza García, dictator of the Nicaragua, for which Arbenz is an agent of Moscow. They condemn a “communist infiltration in America”. The chancellor Guillermo Toriello, of Guatemala, refutes with their charges.

In June 1954, the lieutenant-colonel Carlos Castillo Armas invades the country at the time of the Opération PBSUCCESS, helped by troops trained with the Honduras by the CIA and of a rebellious army trained in Nicaragua. Planes sent by the United States pour bombs of 250 kg on the civil population.

The June 25th 1954, Arbenz orders to distribute weapons to the people; the army refuses. Arbenz resigns in the night of the June 27th while declaring:

“They used the pretext of the anticommunism. The truth is very different. The truth is in the financial interests of the fruit-bearing company and other monopolies states-uniens which invested important money sums in Latin America and which fear that the example of Guatemala is followed by other Latin countries. I was elected by a majority of the people of Guatemala, but I had to beat me with difficult conditions. The truth is that the sovereignty of people cannot be maintained without the material elements to defend it. I dealt with the presidency with great faith towards the democratic system, freedom and the possibility of reaching the economic independence of Guatemala. I continue to believe that this program is right. I did not violate my faith towards the democratic liberties, independence of Guatemala and towards all the good which is the future of humanity. ”

The civil war (1960-1996)

Castillo was assassinated in 1958 and was replaced by the general Ydígoras Fuentes. Some warrant officers rebelled in 1960, but their attempt failed. Some of them then left to hide in the forest by establishing contacts with Cuba. This group of soldiers formed the core of the Guérilla which was opposed to the central government until the agreements of 1996.

Four independent groups of guerilla of extreme-left - the “Army of the poor” (Ejército Guerilla of los Pobres (EGP)), the “revolutionary Organization of the armed people” (ORPA), the “rebellious Armed forces” (FAR) and the “Guatemalan Party of work” (PGT) - organized many acts of sabotage economic by attacking various governmental installations as well as members of the security force of the government at the time of armed attacks. These organizations were linked in 1982 to form the “Guatemalan national revolutionary Union”. Victims of violent repression on behalf of groups of extreme-right-hand side, such the “secret Army anticommunist” (ESA) and the “White Hand”, which tortured student, professional or country suspected of implying itself in activities known as of left, the members of resistance became increasingly numerous. As of 1981, the attacks of the army on the villages suspected of supporting the guerilla start to spread, everywhere with the country.

Little time after the seizure of power, in 1966, of the president Julio César Méndez Montenegro, the army launched a major military campaign against the insurrectionists, who broke the movement guerilla in factions isolated mainly in shift. The attacks of the guerilla concentrated consequently on the capital, Guatemala, where the rebels assassinated many important figures, the such ambassador of the United States John Gordon Mein in 1968. Between 1966 and 1982 followed one another a series of militarist governments Guatemala.

The years Ríos Montt

The March 23rd 1982, of the armed troops ordered by young officers fomented a coup d'etat to prevent the catch to be able by the general Ángel Aníbal Guevara, the choice of the outgoing president Fernando Romeo Lucas García. They denounced the election of Guevara. These same officers asked the general with the retirement Efraín Ríos Montt to take the place left by Guevara with the presidency of the country. Then Pasteur of, it declared, during his inauguration, that its presidency was the result of the wish of God. It formed, little time after its seizure of power, a military junta with three members which cancelled the constitution of 1965, it made dissolve the Congrès, suspended the political parties and cancelled the electoral law. After a few months, it gave up the idea of dictatorship to three members and became single dictator of Guatemala. It set up Patrullas de Autodefensa Civil (CAP) or civil patrols of self-defense, recruited militiamans of force by the army and having for objective of éradiquer the Guérilla. It intended to carry the blow of thanks to the latter using military actions and economic, with the assistance, of its own words, “rifles and beans”.

In May 1982, the Conference of the catholic cardinals shows Ríos Montt of the responsibility for the increasing militarization of the country and for the constant massacre civil populations. The July 18th 1982, the NewYork Times quotes Ríos Montt at the time of a speech in front of Maya Guatemalans:

“If you are with us, we will nourish you; if not, we will kill you. ”

The Massacre of Plan of Sánchez, which will make, according to the sources, between 100 and 268 civilian victims, occurred the same day.

The presidency of Ríos Montt was probably bloodiest the 36 years of civil war which the country, which resulted in addition to 200.000 dead, of the Maya civilians knew mainly. The “commission on the historical explanation” estimates that nearly 93% of the violations to the human rights were made by the government, while the “Office of the Cardinals for the human rights” estimates this rate at 80%.

The August 8th 1983, Ríos Montt was misled by its Minister for Defense, the general Óscar Humberto Mejía Victores, who succeeded to him like president-dictator of Guatemala. Seven people were killed during the coup d'etat while Ríos Montt survived to found a new political party, the Frente Republicano Guatemalteco (FRG), Guatemalan republican Front and was elected president of the Congress in 1995 and 2000.

The Mejía general allowed a progressive return of the democracy Guatemala, with an election on July 1st, 1984 for a constituent Assembly having to establish a democratic constitution. The May 30th 1985, after nearly nine months of debate, the constituent Assembly ends up writing a constitution, which was adopted immediately by the government. Vinicio Cerezo, a civil politician and the candidate of the Christian Democratic party, became president the January 14th 1986 with nearly 70% of the votes. The civil war of Guatemala completed only in 1996, the year when the peace agreement was sign.

1986 to 2000

With its inauguration in January 1986, the civil government of president Cerezo announced that its priorities would be to put an end to political violence and to establish a reign of the law to the country. The reforms included/understood new laws on the habeas corpus and the amparo (protection ordered by the Court), the establishment of a legislative committee on the human rights and the establishment, as of 1987, of the Office of the Ombudsman for the human rights. The Supreme court also adopted a series of reforms to eliminate corruption and to improve the effectiveness of the legal system.

With the election of Cerezo, the army moved away from the governorship to turn over to its more traditional role of maintenance of internal safety, more specifically by tackling groups of insurrectionists. The first two years of the Cerezo administration were characterized by an economic stability and a significant decrease of political violence. Certain dissatisfied soldiers tried two coups d'etat in May 1988 and 1989, without success, the military leaders preferring to support the constitutional order. The government was severely criticized for its lack of will at the time of investigations concerning of the cases of violation of human rights.

The two last years of the Cerezo government, as for them, were remembered by a failing economy, many strikes and demonstrations, without counting many allegations of generalized corruption. The incapacity of the government to answer the many problems of national order (defective infant mortality, illiteracy, health system and social services, growing violence, etc) contributed to the popular discontent.

Presidential and legislative elections were called for the November 11th 1990. Jorge Antonio Serrano Elías was elected president and officially named the January 14th 1991, supplementing of this fact the first transition since a democratically elected citizen to another. Its party, the Movement of action interdependent (FARMHOUSE) having obtained only 18 of the 116 seats of the Guatemalan Congress, Serrano had to establish an alliance with the Christian democrats and the National union of Center (UNC).

The assessment of the Serrano administration was rather disappointing. It had success in the consolidation of the military capacity to the hands of the civilians, substitute of many officers experienced while persuading the army to be taken part in the peace negotiations with the Guatemalan national revolutionary Union (UNRG). Serrano undertook to recognize, in spite of criticisms, the sovereignty of the Belize. The government succeeds in reversing the negative tendency of the economy, reducing inflation and garnering a real growth.

The May 25th 1993, Serrano made illegally dissolve the Congress and the Supreme court and tried to restrict the civil liberties, saying to want to eliminate corruption. This attempt at establishment of a dictatorship faced plain Guatemalan people against these measurements, with many pressures of the international community and the possibility of an intervention of the Guatemalan army, which recognized the decision of the Constitutional court, which voted against the coup attempt of state. Vis-a-vis these pressures, Serrano exiled country.

The June 5th 1993, the Congress, according to the rules of the Constitution of 1985, elects Ramiro de León Carpio, then Ombudsman of the human rights, to finish the presidential session of Serrano. De León was not member of any political party; in spite of its rather restricted political bases, it could be based on a strong support on behalf of the population. It launched an ambitious programme of elimination of corruption in order to " purifier" the Congress and Supreme court, asking for the resignation of all the members of the two entities.

In spite of a considerable resistance on behalf of the Congress, the popular and presidential pressure led in November 1993 to an agreement between the administration and the Congress, where the Catholic church was used as mediator. The January 30th 1994, a popular referendum approved the whole of the constitutional reforms. In August 1994, a new Congress was elected in order to supplement the session in progress. Controlled by parties anti-corruption (the Guatemalan republican Face directed by the general Ríos Montt and the Party of national advance (SIDE), of center-right), the new Congress moved away little by little from corruption having characterized its past.

Under Leon, the peace negotiations began again, now supervised by the the United Nations. The government and the UNRG signed agreements on the human rights (March 1994), the rehabilitation of displaced persons (June 1994), the historical clarification (June 1994) and the rights autochtones (March 1995). They made also considerable advances on the socio-economic and agrarian agreement.

Presidential, legislative and municipal elections national took place in November 1995. With nearly 20 parties being opposed to the first turn, the presidential election transformed the January 7th 1996 into race in which the candidate of the SIDE (Álvaro Arzú Irigoyen) demolished Alfonso Portillo Cabrera FRG by a thin 2% of the vote. Arzú gained thanks to its popularity in the capital Guatemala, where he was mayor, and in all the surrounding urban area. Portillo gained the whole of the rural departments, except the Petén.

Under Arzú, the peace negotiations were supplemented and the government signed the in December 1996 peace agreements, putting fine at thirty-six years of civil war. The situation of the human rights also improved, and of the stages were crossed in order to reduce the influence of the army in the national businesses.

Guatemala had new elections presidential, legislative and local elections the November 7th 1999 and a race with the presidential election the December 26th of the same year. With the first turn, the FRG acquired 63 of the 113 legislative seats, while the SIDE collected 37 of them. The Alliance of the new nation (ANN) gained 9 of these seats, and three minority parties collected the four remaining seats. In the race of December 26th, Alfonso Portillo of the FRG collected 68% of the vote compared with 32% for its adversary of the SIDE, Óscar Berger. Portillo gained all 22 department and the capital, before considered as a castle-extremely of the SIDE.

Portillo was criticized during the program for its bonds with the leader of the FRG, Ríos Montt. Several analysts show this last to have made, during its reign, the worst violations with the human rights of the civil war. Nevertheless, the bright victory of Portillo, collecting nearly the two-thirds of the vote to the second turn, gave him credibility to establish its program of reform.

President Portillo arranged himself to preserve strong bonds with the the United States while improving the co-operation of the country with the Mexico, by actively working in the process of integration of the country to the Central America and the western hemisphere. He also supported the continual liberalization of the economy, the increase in the human capital and the infrastructure, the establishment of a central bank. He also devoted himself to a reinforcement of the perception of the taxes to the country instead of choosing an increase. He also promised to continue the peace process, to name a Minister for defense among the civil population, to reform the armed forces, to replace the military service safety presidential by one which is civil and to strengthen the protection of the human rights. He named a pluralist cabinet, which included autochtones and people nonaffiliated to the FRG.

The 21e century

Facing a very high rate of criminality, with problems of public corruption, a constant intimidation directed towards activists for the human rights, from the lawyers, the journalists and the witnesses of the courts, the government began for the first time, in 2001, of the attempts at national reconciliation in order to find solutions with these recurring problems.

In July 2003, of many demonstrations sauntered in the capital, forcing the closing of the Embassy of the United States whereas the partisans of Ríos Montt asked for his return to the capacity. They asked, inter alia, that the prohibition imposed by the government be abolished, which prevented this last from being presented as a presidential candidate to the elections of 2003. The demonstrators accepted a free meal on behalf of the revolutionary Face of Guatemala in exchange of their participation.

The November 9th 2003, Óscar Shepherd, the former mayor of Guatemala Ciudad, gains the election with nearly 38,8% of the voices, against nearly 11% for the ex-dictator Ríos Montt, who finished third after Álvaro Colom, candidate of the center-left.

In 2007, Rigoberta Menchu announces to want to be candidate with the presidential election of her country, which is envisaged in September. It created movement WINAQ, platform gathering of many Maya movements of all the country and receives the moral support and logistics of the FARMHOUSE, party which brought to the victory Evo Morales as well as the personal support of the first indigenous president.

English bibliography

• Paul J. Dosal, Doing Business with the Dictators: In Political History off United Fruit in Guatemala 1899-1944 , Wilmington, Of., Scholarly Resources 1993 ISBN 0842025901

• Greg Grandin, The Last Colonial Massacres: America Latin in the Cold War , Chicago 2004 ISBN 0226305716 or ISBN 0226305724
• Immerman, R.H., The CIA in Guatemala: The Foreign Policy off Intervention , University off Texas Near: Austin, 1982. ISBN 0292710836
• Walter LaFeber, Inevitable Revolutions: The United States in Exchange America . New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1993. ISBN 0393309649
• Victoria Sanford, Buried secrecies: truth and human rights in Guatemala , New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003 ISBN 1403960232
• Stephen Schlesinger, Stephen Kinzer, Bitter Fruit: The Untold Story off the American Blow in Guatemala , Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1982 ISBN 0385148615
• Cullather, Nick (1999). Secret History: The CIA' S classified account off its operations in Guatemala, 1952-1954 . Standform University Near. ISBN 0804733112.

French bibliography

• Gilles Battalion, Genesis of the internal wars in Central America (1960-1983) , beautiful letters: Paris, 2003 ISBN 2-25138065-5

• Barth, Maurice, the Guatemalan Hell: the 1960-1996 Commission Report " reconstitution of the memory historique" , Karthala: CCFD, 2000 ISBN 2845860889

See too

Related articles

• List of the presidents of Guatemala
• History of the Latin America

External bonds

• Historical of Guatemala (1945 to 1954) compared with current Venezuela

Random links:

Viry (Saône-et-Loire) | Thermobaric weapon | Wafa Sultan | Mannick | Sefseri

© 2007-2008 speedlook.com; article text available under the terms of GFDL, from fr.wikipedia.org