Guatemala Transition Paper

Deep in the heart of Central America, there resides a country. A country full of rich, raw beauty; a country full of deep ancient history and culture, but also a country full of the toils of corruption and poverty. That country's name is Guatemala.

The 20th century was wrought with tragedy, corruption, and destruction of the small country of Guatemala. At the beginning of the century, the country was plagued by the rule of dictators and their oppressive regimes. Revolution brought about relative peace for a decade but then the country was subjected to decades of horror. The most notable and influential event in Guatemalan history is the infamous coup d’état Operation Success. This paper aims to examine the CIA overthrow along with the Guatemalan Spring along with President Jacobo Árbenz’s reforms that would eventually lead to the infamous coup d’état, as well as the role of the United States and the United Fruit Company played in the demise of the Guatemalan government.

United States’ system has its foundation on an agreement between the people and the government to ensure that individual liberties continue to prosper under a free society. The Declaration of Independence lists three important rights that the Founding Fathers considered natural and unalienable. They are the right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. Government exists to protect these rights. On other hand, the purpose of Guatemala’s government, according to the Guatemala’s Constitution, is to promote the common welfare, the consolidation of the regime of legality, security, equality, justice, liberty and peace. Both countries have its foundation on democracy; nevertheless, there are specific characteristics that mark a difference between them.

The United States was in favor of democracy in Latin America; however, the reforms made by these “democracies” had to stay within the limits imposed by the US. Therefore, Arbenz became a communist threat after legalizing the communist party and moving to nationalize the plantation of the United Fruit Company . By nationalizing the United Fruit Company, the US and the land owners in Guatemala were going to lose money; therefore, they shared common ground, and were against it. They did not agree with the empowerment of the indigenous people of Mayan descent, and were always discriminated upon. The dictators from neighboring countries were afraid that the reforms being made in Guatemala were going to influence their “respective oligarchies” (Rabe, Stephen G.) and helped organize a possible coup with the United States (Miller, Talea). The CIA desperately searched for any ties between the USSR and Arbenz, but could not find anything. The CIA in Guatemala reported a list with names of communists that they wanted to eliminate when an anti-communist coup was taken place (Document 2), and the killings

The war was fought between the government and rebel groups that made up the more poor part of Guatemala. The civil war was the root cause of Guatemala’s violence today. One form of crime that Guatemala faces is drug trafficking. Guatemala connects the United States, South America, and Mexico together when it comes to drugs trafficking (Bunck). There are many drug trafficking routes that pass throughout Guatemala, so they can distribute it to larger organizations in Mexico and Colombia. In addition, drug related crimes goes hand and hand with gangs. Gangs in Guatemala are spreading rapidly, many people are born into gangs and cannot leave. This results in more crimes like murder, kidnapping, theft, and having illegal items. Guatemala also has a corrupt government. Many military officers are involved with illegal activities. In some cases, criminals can buy their way out of getting into trouble and even buy their support from police officers (Bunck). This goes to show that Guatemala has a weak government that can be easily

The author of this book is Juan Jose Arevalo and he was a professor of philosophy who became Guatemala’s first democratically elected president in 1944. He was elected after a popular uprising against the United States, backed by Dictator Jorge Ubico, which began the Guatemalan Revolution. He stayed in office until 1951 and had survived 15 coup attempts. During his presidency he had passed several social reform policies that included an increase in minimum wage and a series of literacy programs. He also directed and ministered the drafting of a new constitution in 1945. Arevalo focused much on the need of advancement with individuals and communities. After he was exiled as being a university professor he went back to Guatemala to help the new post-Ubico government, focusing on the areas of social security and drafting of a new constitution. He developed the term “spiritual socialism”, in which he defined his political philosophy as. The philosophy was pointed towards the moral development of Guatemalans with the intent to liberate man psychologically. Arevalo strongly believed that this theoretical doctrine was vital to the making of a progressive and peaceful Guatemalan society. He felt in order to create an ideal society it was necessary to allow the citizens the freedom to pursue their own opinions, property, and way of life. He proclaimed that protecting the freewill of the citizens creates more support for governmental institutions, which in turn ensures the security of

I studied many things about Guatemala such as, the culture, religion, food, population, geography, imports, exports, and most popular of all sports. The sports of Guatemala is something I found very interesting.

In the midst of the prevalence of democratic transitions, a number of developing countries are seeking to achieve the successful consolidation of civil order in modern days. Among those participants, Mexico and Nigeria has been spotlighted for the completely contrastive endings at the end of their long-adventures towards democratization since their independence; Mexico, from its independence, has maintained the political stability despite the authoritarian single-party regime and even accomplished the solid democratization at the time of the 2000 election whereas Nigerian regime has been deteriorated by a series of military cues d’états and

150). Democracy is supposed to be about equal opportunity but when bribery is brought into the balance it disrupts the scale to tip the scales into the favor of the politicians which goes against the principle of democracy (“Rise of Democracy”, para. 1). In the majority of Latin American countries there is a system called “compulsory voting” which makes it illegal not to vote. Although it is illegal not to vote, in Brazil’s case, only 78.90% of eligible voters voted for the presidential campaign in 2014 (“Voter Turnout”, para. 3). While there is a huge amount of corruption in Latin America, it can be overcome. In September of 2015, a crowd of Guatemalans chanted at President Otto Perez Molina, “Resign, now.” Their voice was heard as the ex-Guatemalan president stood down from office and is now in prison awaiting trial over an alleged corruption scandal (Watson, p.1, para. 1-3). This is just a glimpse of the power the people can hold. If the voters can get a current president out of office than imagine what can happen if everyone were to vote for who they truly believe is worthy of representing and governing the country.

As Charles Bergquist observes, "Crises in Colombia tend to generate cycles of violence instead of mutations in the political regime." The reason is simple: regime changes in Colombia tend to produce very little change in anything other than nominal rule. Since Colombia's independence from Spain in the early 19th century, Colombia has seen a series of civil wars and secessions (Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama the last coming rather conveniently at a time when the U.S. was prepared to pay millions for a canal through its nation preparation that later resulted in a multi-million dollar redress to Columbia). Colombia's political history, therefore, has been colored by outside influences pulling on the two dominant liberal and conservative parties, with violent exchanges, and long periods of instability being the consequences. While regime changes have occurred, they have not produced significant improvements. Rather, Colombia in the 20th century has become a nesting ground for paramilitary forces and drug traffickers, with U.S. Central Intelligence operatives contributing heavily to the violent conflict that has risen between regimes. This paper will examine the regime types that preceded the Rojas Pinilla regime in mid-20th century Colombia, analyze their similarities and differences, and discuss the extent to which Rojas Pinilla reached his goals and objectives.

(intro)the 2009- 2010 leaders and supporters of the FNL, The Front of Struggle, were killed by drug hitmen. Ovidio ortiz, a life long leader of the heath union, was a target for the massacre. He was hit with eight bullets. Six days after the health worker massacre on march 30th a passing vehicle shot at residents who gathered at the neighborhood store, only 8 were injured. (history of death squads) The guatemalan army slaughtered politics and suspected

In addition to gaining and keeping control is through fear and chaos. a recent uncovered discovery is how gangs also interfere with  local governments trying to gain power. The survey shows that it has not gone unnoticed by Salvadorans, who tend to blame their government for not getting the peace and order to the people. The  Police Chief Howard Cotto of El salvador has known gangs are continuing efforts to interfere with local politics ahead of the country's upcoming elections that is happening in March of next year.  Cotto explained that gangs offer help secure votes for a running candidates to help bring down levels of insecurity  in exchange for benefits such as weapons, protection, and providing jobs for the gangs for leverage.

The Republic of Guatemala is a small country bordered by Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, and Belize. It is a country of mountains, volcanoes, and beaches. Guatemala is 42,042 square miles in area, and is only slightly larger than the United States state of Tennessee. One third of its 16,641,813 population lives in cool highland villages. Guatemala is an active region, located near the Cocos and Caribbean oceanic tectonic plates, and has frequent earthquakes and volcanic activity. There are around thirty different volcanoes in Guatemala, and six have been active or erupted recently.

A few factors for the growth of pandillos in Central America include weak criminal justice systems, geographic, the region’s long history of authoritarianism and conflict, and population displacement and deportation (Bruneau, 154). Bruneau listed weak criminal justice systems as a factor because it makes it difficult to “enforce compliance with the law” (155). Moreover, large portions of the public have viewed law enforcement as the enemy for so long that people need time before they begin to trust and cooperate with members of the criminal justice system (Bruneau, 155). Until that time, gangs and other groups fill the void left by state actors (Bruneau,

Honduras is a vibrant country, offering crystalline blue waters, breathtaking jungles, and eye opening mountains. The Republic of Honduras is located in the northern part of the Central America. Honduras was once part of Spain’s great empire. The country triumphed to the end and became an independent nation in 1823. Honduras is a country with rich historical backgrounds. The country of Honduras is the second-largest country in Central America. Even though the Republic of Honduras is facing financial hardships, the country, however, is very culturally driven, making this country a hidden diamond for many. In this research paper I plan to focus on the history, geography, culture and the economical