History of Guatemala

[27] In October 1826, Central American Federation president Manuel José de Arce y Fagoaga dissolved the Legislature and attempted to establish a Unitarian System for the region, shifting from the Liberal to the Conservative party led by Aycinena.

A few days later, he went to Ahuachapán to organise an army to confront the conservative aristocrats led by Mariano Aycinena y Piñol in Guatemala and to establish a regime favourable to the Central American Federation, the vision of the liberal criollos.

[42] His major opponents were Colonel and Juan de Dios Mayorga; also, José Francisco Barrundia and Pedro Molina, who had been his friends and party colleagues, came to oppose him in the later years of his government after he violently tried to repress the peasant revolt using a scorched earth approach against rural communities.

[59] Carrera, exploiting his enemies' assumptions, concentrated fire on Central Park and employed surprise attack tactics, causing heavy casualties to Morazán's army and forcing the survivors to fight for their lives.

[68] On 26 August 1848, they declared Los Altos an independent state once again, with support from Vasconcelos' regime in El Salvador and the rebel guerrilla army led by Vicente and Serapio Cruz, sworn enemies of Carrera.

[66] Meanwhile, in Guatemala, where the invasion plans were well known, President Mariano Paredes began taking precautions to face the threat, while Guatemalan Archbishop Francisco de Paula García Peláez ordered peace prayers throughout the archdiocese.

Carrera regrouped his army and crossed into Salvadoran territory, occupying Santa Ana, before receiving orders from Guatemalan President Mariano Paredes to return to Guatemala, as the Allies were requesting a cease-fire and a peace treaty.

Through this agreement, Guatemala entrusted the education of its people to the Catholic Church's religious orders, pledged to respect ecclesiastical property and monasteries, imposed mandatory tithing, and allowed bishops to censor publications.

Like his predecessors Rafael Carrera y Turcios and Justo Rufino Barrios, who had led similarly autocratic regimes, Cabrera began his first presidential term by prosecuting political rivals and establishing a well-organised network of spies.

[122] The prince described Guatemalan society as having three sharply defined classes:[123] In 1931, General Jorge Ubico came to power, supported by the United States, and established one of the most repressive regimes in Central American history.

A wealthy aristocrat (with an estimated income of $215,000 per year in 1930s dollars) and a staunch anti-communist, Ubico consistently aligned himself with the United Fruit Company, Guatemalan landowners, and urban elites in conflicts with peasants.

[152] Arana was a highly influential figure in Arévalo's government and had secured his nomination as the next presidential candidate, surpassing Captain Árbenz, who was told that due to his young age, he would have no difficulty waiting for his turn in the subsequent election.

[152] Arana died in a gun battle against a military civilian attempting to capture him on 18 July 1949, at the Bridge of Glory in Amatitlán, where he and his assistant commander had gone to inspect weapons that had been seized at the Aurora Air Base a few days earlier.

The election of Árbenz alarmed U.S. State Department officials, who remarked that Arana had always represented the "only positive conservative element" in the Arévalo administration, that his death would "materially strengthen the Left," and that "developments forecast a sharp leftist trend within the government.

To establish the necessary physical infrastructure for "independent" and national capitalist development, and reduce extreme dependence on the United States while breaking the American monopolies in the country—primarily those controlling the banana enclave economy—Árbenz and his government began planning and constructing the Atlantic Highway.

[170] Local media outlets, such as the newspapers El Imparcial and La Hora, exploited press freedoms under the regime and, with UFCO's sponsorship, criticized communism and the government's legal recognition of the Communist Party.

Although many Guatemalans were committed to the original ideals of the 1944 uprising, some private sector leaders and military figures came to view Árbenz as a communist threat and supported his overthrow, hoping that his successor would continue the more moderate reforms initiated by Arevalo.

In 1958, during General Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes's government, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) financed infrastructure projects in Sebol, which eventually adopted the name "Fray Bartolomé de las Casas," a municipality created in 1983 in Alta Verapaz.

As part of its strategy, the EGP aimed to carry out actions that would gain public attention and symbolically represent the establishment of "social justice" against the inefficiency and ineffectiveness of the State's judicial and administrative systems.

Some of these landowners, including Monzón, stated: "Several peasants living in villages and settlements want to burn urban areas to gain access to private property",[193] and they requested protection from the governor of Alta Verapaz.

[i] On 29 May 1978, peasants from the villages of Cahaboncito, Semococh, Rubetzul, Canguachá, Sepacay, the Moyagua plantation, and the La Soledad neighborhood decided to stage a public demonstration in the Plaza de Panzós to demand land rights and express their discontent over the arbitrary actions of landowners and civil and military authorities.

Villagrán Kramer, a man of recognized democratic principles who had participated in the 1944 Revolution, was connected to the interests of transnational corporations and elites, as he served as a key adviser to Guatemala's agricultural, industrial, and financial chambers.

[198] At the beginning of his tenure as president, Saúl Osorio founded the weekly Siete Días en la USAC, which not only reported on university activities but also consistently exposed human rights violations, particularly the repression of the popular movement.

[230] A group of indigenous people from El Quiché occupied the embassy in a desperate attempt to draw attention to their issues with the Army in that region, which was rich in oil and had been recently populated as part of the "Franja Transversal del Norte" agricultural program.

Attacks on private financial, commercial, and agricultural targets increased during Lucas García's presidency, as leftist Marxist groups perceived these institutions as "reactionary" and "millionaire exploiters" collaborating with the repressive government.

Successes by revolutionary forces in Nicaragua against the Somoza regime, combined with the insurgency's own achievements against the Lucas government, led rebel leaders to mistakenly believe that they were reaching a military equilibrium in Guatemala.

Concurrently, extreme right-wing vigilante groups such as the Secret Anti-Communist Army (ESA) and the White Hand (La Mano Blanca) were actively torturing and murdering students, professionals, and peasants suspected of leftist involvement.

While leftist guerrillas and right-wing death squads also carried out summary executions, forced disappearances, and torture of noncombatants, the vast majority of human rights violations were committed by the Guatemalan military and the PACs under their control.

Controlled by anti-corruption parties—the populist Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG) led by Ríos Montt, and the center-right National Advancement Party (PAN)—the new Congress began to distance itself from the corruption that plagued its predecessors.

[252] However, on 16 April 2015, the UN anti-corruption agency CICIG issued a report implicating several high-profile politicians, including Vice President Baldetti's private secretary, Juan Carlos Monzón, and the director of the Guatemalan Internal Revenue Service.