The Guatemalaan Revolution: The Causes Of The Guatemalan Revolution

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.

This article being released allowed other countries to become aware about the tragic battle that is going on in this beautiful country. Then in 1982 there was a new president that was elected because of a military coup and his name was General Effrain Rios Montt. He was fully against the government system they currently had and he had annulled the 1965 constitution, dissolved the congress and had banned all political parties. This turned the government system in Guatemala to be fully under the control of the army. He also would later that year form local civilian defense groups to work alongside the military in search of the guerilla fighters. They had recovered most of the territory that the guerilla fighters had gained and gave no place for guerilla fighters to feel safe. This was a very brutal time during this war because of the army taking back the guerilla fighters territory and the many civilians they had killed who were living in the camps with the guerilla fighters (Miller,

Guatemala used to be the center of the Maya culture during the first millennium A.D. In 1523, Spanish came to this land, destroyed the Maya culture, and made it become a colony for around 300 years. In 1821, Guatemala won its independence. This country suffered a 36-year civil war during the second half of last century, which killed more than 200,000 people and created about 1 million refugees. In 1996, the government ended the conflict formally by signing a peace agreement. Since then, the political stability

The Guatemalan civil war began because the government and military were greatly abusing the citizen’s human rights. In result to this communist led gorillas began an active political war of terror in 1961. There underlying cause of this is the discontent both politically and economically between the people and the government. Economically the government supported the domination of an elite class in society. This

During my time in Guatemala, I believe that the social issues I came in the most contact with were hegemony and cultural imperialism, or in other words, the influence the United States has over Guatemala. No matter where I was, whether it be the streets of the small town of San Miguel or the larger, more developed city of Guatemala City, I could not help but notice how much of an impact the United States has. Throughout the course of a month we learned a lot about the root causes of poverty- America as a hegemon- through both readings and discussion. The footprint the U.S. has left in Guatemala was apparent not only while reading and learning about the history of Latin America, but while visiting the country itself. In addition, we had the

Guatemala gained its independence from Spain on September 15, 1821 and has struggled to maintain a stable government since. As said, the Guatemalan government has gone

The non-juridical nature of the Guatemalan Truth Commission forced it to focus its efforts on identifying structural, social, cultural, and political factors of violence. Because of the limit in juridical power, all parties – the state, the guerrilla, and civil society – anticipated its failure. The Guatemalan TRC is not a product of a deliberate decision to prioritise peace over justice, but a result of the existing power structure at the time of its creation. However, it prompted a transformation in political discourse and historical narrative, that would later nurture efforts to bring justice to victims. The report published by the Guatemalan truth commission is, by all accounts,

Efraín Ríos Montt was the president of Guatemala during 1981-1983. He started a genocide campaign of state terror to eliminate the Mayas in the name of countering “communist subversion” and stripping the country’s indigenous culture.

The beginnings of the Guatemalan Revolution which had its initial spark that would lead its people and government officials on a costly trajectory and crash course with American imperialism and American assertion of hegemonic dominance in the Centro-Caribbean basin occurred in the year 1944. The overthrow the ubiquitous dictator Jorge Ubico lead to the subsequent election of President of Juan Jose Arevalo and subsequently that of Jacobo Arbenz, much to the dismay of the United States of America. This timeline of events was one that would have grave consequences for the Central American nation. The political atmosphere that existed beforehand and its pretext are ones of grave importance when it comes to understanding the political atmosphere

A few years after his voluntarily exile to the United States, Batista returns to Cuba and decides to regain control of the island once again. During the time Batista was gone, Cuba was in a period of corruption and social and political unrest, all at the hands of his successor, Ramon Grau. The elections of 1948 made Carlos Prio Socarras president, however he did nothing to end the corruption that Grau had left in the country. This is where Batista comes in the picture. Batista joined the election of 1952 against Prio as the head of his own party, the United Action Party which was founded in 1949. Batista had the confidence that the people would choose him, since he was so popular during his presidency. However, Batista realized that his opponents were not only politically stronger than him, they were also more popular.

Over the course of the revolution, many Nicaraguan citizens placed their faith in La Prensa and the FSLN to help liberate them from the Somoza Regime. Then with the Pedro’s death, the Chamorros disunited, in the direction they wanted to take La Prensa. The author notes how this trickled down into the allegiances of the people. Many re-evaluated their political stances, which resulted in the unity amongst the people that the FSLN and La Prensa fought to create to decay. Her monograph is an enlightening work that exposes just how important the La Prensa was in establishing stability in

The Colombian Liberal Party had maintained hegemony in Colombia through the 1930s and 40s, politically sidelining the Colombian Conservative Party. The presidential elections of 1946, however, would change this. Liberal candidates, Gabriel Turbay and Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, would split the vote and, therefore, cause the victory of Mariano Ospina Pérez, a member of the conservative party. The conservatives had suffered condemnation from the liberals since 1930 and now that the latter’s power had manifested in Colombia the tides would shift toward conservative retaliation. Peasants armed by the Colombian Liberal Party sprung up in order to wage war on the government. This marked the beginning of a notable rise in political resentment toward either party by their counterpart.

Before the the military group took over the government in 1976, a few events lead to societies disconnect. In 1973 the argentine economy was not in good shape due to inflation and high petroleum prices. With Peron back in power, the argentine people had lots of optimism

In October 1945 a revolution broke out, and violent fighting took place in Caracas. A new government was set up under the presidency of a young AD leader, Romulo Betancourt. Although foreign powers suspected he might be sympathetic toward Communism, Betancourt allayed their fears by his declarations concerning the prompt holding of elections and a program of acceptable reform. He also promised the foreign oil interests that no radical action would be taken against them.

General Antonio de Spinole, the head of the Junao of National Salvation, was declared as the leader of the new regime. The Junta and the MFA publicly declared that they had no intentions to revolutionise the country, rather they wanted to create democratic political institutions and allow a constituent assembly to be elected by a popular vote.